What If

First Hit: There are really good and engaging moments but it seemed too long overall.

Wallace (Daniel Radcliffe) is lamenting a breakup from his girlfriend.

It’s been a year and as we meet him, he finally deletes her last VM which he has saved 365 times. This was a good way to give the audience perspective of his sadness. He meets Chantry (Zoe Kazan) at a party.

There is an immediate chemistry through their banter. He walks her home and they decided to meet up again but she tells him she has a boyfriend. Through circumstance they meet up and end up being close friends. They spend a lot of time together (which is where the film gets long) in different circumstances and even their friends Nicole and Allan (Mackenzie Davis and Adam Driver respectively), seeing their connection, try to get them to get together.

What didn’t work for me was the script having Chantry being so hesitant to acknowledge what was really going on to her. Yes her boyfriend Ben (Rafe Spall) was a solid guy, but after 5 years together and he didn’t invite her to Dublin to live with him seemed like either a poorly written script or an obvious non-committed relationship.

To have an intelligent character put into this hold position for so long was false.  Her character was too smart to wait so long to make and act on a decision. This in-turn had me not believing the story.

Radcliffe was very good and he projected his restraint towards Chantry with a longing wistfulness that was done very well. Kazan was hampered by the script. I just don’t think she was given the opportunity to make the story better. We all knew the end of the story going into the film. Creating extra delay to get there hurt her ability to perform. Davis and Driver were both amazing and outstanding together. Spall was strong as the solid guy Kazan was waiting for. Elan Mastai wrote the screen play and as I’ve said already there were elongating mistakes in the script that kept the film from moving along to its obvious end. Michael Dowse directed the film and could have driven this film forward in a less meandering way.

Overall: This story had potential but was waylaid by the un-crisp script.

Palo Alto

First Hit: A very well acted film about young people finding their place.

April (Emma Roberts) is a sensitive girl who has a crush on her high-school soccer coach Mr. B. (James Franco). The desire is mutual.

Teddy (Jack Kilmer) is a “stoner” whose mom is not very attentive of her son and his exploits, which partially results in behavior that is somewhat destructive. His closest friend Fred (Nat Wolff), is a self-absorbed guy who is always trying to make trouble with everyone as a way to be the center of attention.

The story is mainly aimed at how April and Teddy have experiences that help them to take another step towards growing up. The thing that stood out most about this film is that it felt very accurate about how young people deal with, talk about, and process the information given to them about their lives. The script and direction was very strong which gave this film its feel of authenticity.

Roberts was really good at being the girl who is on the fringes of the popular group but attempting to find what will create happiness for herself separate from the group. Jack Kilmer was also strong at being the guy who wants to be popular, hangs with the most troubling guy to push his cred, and finally settles into is art which where his soul resides. Val Kilmer has a small part of Roberts’ step-father and his stoner ways exemplify the lack of direction kids were getting from their parents in this community. Wolff was strong as the kid, we all knew, from high-school who always pushes the boundaries of the law, good taste and good behavior. Gia Coppola wrote and directed this film with a skill, expertise and eye for the subtleties of the struggles of being young.

Overall: This is a strong film and worth seeing.

The Hundred-Foot Journey

First Hit:  A wonderful film although I thought the middle was long and a little slow.

The premise was great: A family coming from India to France via England to create a livelihood for themselves. Would they find a way to make it?

They were restaurateurs in India and this was what they knew. Papa (Om Puri) was in control of his family and after he lost his wife, he did his best to guide his family in a single direction, together. His younger son Hassan (Manish Dayal) had the gift of being able to cook. His mother had taught him about spices and how to use them in food.

The family settles into a large building across the street from a restaurant run by Madame Mallory (Helen Mirren) who has a single Michelin Star. She is obsessive about the star, her restaurant and is a difficult taskmaster about how the restaurant works, presents itself and the food they serve. She is not happy about the Indian music and curry smells coming from her new neighbor.

One of her sous-chefs Marguerite (Charlotte Le Bon) takes a liking to Hassan and their relationship both professionally and personally grows. The scenes where each kitchen is chopping food in a war-like competition were fun. The beauty of the food on the plates - wonderful. The growing relationship between the two families was fun to watch.

Where the film got lost for me was shortly after Hassan moves to Mallory’s kitchen and through the part when he was in Paris learning how to cook through science and chemistry. Where was the real angst of this soulless work? Where was the real longing to get back to cooking real natural food.

I don’t know if the film would have been interesting with another middle, but the end was obvious from the beginning and I think there was another way to get there.

Puri was sublime. His portrayal of being and Indian entrepreneur protecting and doing what was best for his family was simply great. Dayal was really good as the son who had the cooking talents. Mirren was her usual fantastic self. She made me fully believe she was a Michelin Star restaurateur. Le Bon was a ray of light in this film and her smile made each of her scenes, alone, worth watching. Stephen Knight wrote an interesting screenplay although at times it seemed too involved. The story could have been simpler. Lasse Hallstrom directed this film with a great eye for color, scene staging, and sense of feeling. Again, not to belabor, somewhere in the middle I became a bit disinterested, only to find it the story to pick up again in the end.

Overall:  I enjoyed this film and thought that each scene was wonderfully executed.

Get on Up

First Hit:  The music was great, dancing even better, historically somewhat interesting, and confusing in how it was put together.

I recall listening to James Brown (played by Chadwick Boseman) in the early 1960s thinking, this guy’s doing his own thing and it is very soulful.

Not soulful like the Supremes, Martha and the Vandellas, or The Platters. Brown’s music was in a word “Funky”. He is and was the creator of the funk sound. He mixed musical rhythms together that may have made a classical musical teacher cringe, but in the end the sound was powerful, interesting and in the soulful groove of us all.

His music reached across races – James Brown made such an impact in music that is felt today and will forever be felt. The film gave perspective of where he came from, how he was raised, and his belief that he knew what he wanted his music to sound like. One of the most interesting scenes is during a rehearsal when he told everyone that their musical instrument was a drum – and that the beat he wanted would work if they did what he said.

The film also gave a glimpse as to his beliefs of our government and race. He demanded respect from his musicians and was a task master. He didn’t trust many people. The music came through loud and clear and the camera work on some of the dancing was very good. However the crisscross movement of time to review his past and present life was confusing at times because the relation to time was not well marked. There were times I had to think as to what time in his life we were seeing.

Boseman was really good as Brown and he seemed to get a lot of the dancing footwork down which may not have been easy. Nelsan Ellis played his best friend and bandmate Bobby Byrd. Ellis was really strong and he made Boseman’s character better. He provide a deeper understanding of Brown. Dan Aykroyd played his manager and business partner Ben Bart. As Bart, Ackroyd was fantastic. His seriousness and sarcasm was perfect. Viola Davis as Susie Brown (mother) was very strong and provided both warmth, remorse and depth to the film. Jez and John-Henry Butterworth wrote the screenplay which required research and a willingness to dig into the positives and darker side of his life. Tate Taylor directed this film and may have made it more complicated to view than necessary.

Overall:  The music was outstanding – I enjoyed taking a trip down memory lane.

Magic in the Moonlight

First Hit:  Lighthearted philosophical romp through Woody Allen’s belief structure around magic, God and science.

Stanley (Colin Firth) is a magician named Wei Ling Soo. He’s famous and he’s good. He also has a job of invalidating and unmasking people who claim to be spiritualist, people that can speak to the dead and denote a person’s past.

His best friend, and fellow magician, Howard Burkan (Simon McBurney) comes to him with a proposition to unmask a young beautiful woman who claims to be clairvoyant. Sophie (Emma Stone) comes from a working class family and because of her abilities has gotten some wealthy people supporting her and her abilities by leading séances.

As the story unfolds, Stanley starts to believe until he sees the fallacy of what is happening to him. The scenery of this film is great. I loved the cars used to represent the 1920’s and the costumes were really wonderful. Stylistically this film is really good, but Allenistic dialogue just seemed to be pressed at times although the last ½ hour was a lot more interesting and engaging.

Firth is excellent as the sarcastic arrogant English magician. However his rudeness actually bothered me from time to time – probably the intended result. McBurney was good as the conniving jealous friend. Stone was sweet as Sophie but she wasn’t quite believable as a psychic. I did think that this pairing didn’t work well because of the age differences between the two. Allen both wrote and directed this film and as expected we get Woody’s version of the world and here it was a little overhanded.

Overall:  Enjoyable and easy to watch, however not sure if the intellectual challenges Allen wanted were really there.