LBJ

First Hit:  An uninspiring film and Harrelson’s make-up was very distracting.

I didn’t know a lot about President Lyndon Baines Johnson (Woody Harrelson) except that LBJ rose to the position of President because of President John F. Kennedy’s (JFK) assassination. He also escalated the Vietnam war, picked up his beagles by the ears, which distressed dog owners, and got the landmark civil rights bill banning racial discrimination in public places, interstate commerce, housing and in the workplace. This last part was milestone legislation.

I had hoped this film would fill in some of the blanks I had about the man and his legacy; it didn’t. It showed he drank a fair amount of whisky, he was crass, wanted to be liked, really wanted to complete JFK’s agenda and was really disliked by Bobby Kennedy.

From what the film showed there was little to like about LBJ. We did see that his wife Lady Bird (Jennifer Jason Leigh) was his true confidant, although her part in the film was minimal.

The story might have been interesting if there were a few changes. A better more deeply developed main character by providing something about who he was and where he came from, would have helped. I think the prosthetics used to make Woody Harrelson were distracting. It made Johnson’s face look fake by having the eyes and mouth seem to be working in a different plane than the rest of the face and body.

The best part of the whole film was LBJ’s speech to a full session of congress after JFK’s death.

It is hard to determine Harrelson’s performance because he was so encumbered by the prosthetic devices and makeup. His accent fluctuated at times and seemed to move toward a more modern feeling instead of being from the 1960’s. I do think Harrelson was earnest in his effort and the script was not well thought out. Leigh was OK in her very almost invisible background role. Michael Stahl-David as Bobby Kennedy was strong. He carried and excellently expressed the differences between a southern democrat and a northern one. Richard Jenkins as Senator Richard Russell was really good. I think Jenkins was excellent at sharing old-school southern democratic ways. Joey Hartstone wrote a week and rambling unfocused screenplay. Rob Reiner did LBJ and this film a disservice and let the unfocused, rambling and un-grounded biography to play out in this way.

Overall:  A disappointing film.

The Truth About Lies

First Hit: Enjoyable little indie film about how lying can catch up with you.

The film begins with the main character Gilby Smalls (Fran Kranz) having a really bad day. He gets fired from his job, his apartment burns down and just as he goes over to his girlfriend’s house with boxes full of his remains from the fire, she tells him he cannot stay there. Standing in her living room, she dumps him as she gets ready to go out with a man she’s been seeing on the side. The world crashes around him.

To set up how he lies, we see him in a job interview and his lying is hilarious. Then, going to a friend’s family party he runs into Rachel Stone (Odette Annable) who is his friend’s sister and she's a knockout. His conversation with her is sidesplitting because he lies the whole time. Each time she catches his lie, he segues into another lie. It is even more funny because you know he doesn’t even really believe his own lies but he tries to make the other person believe them.

When Rachel’s husband Eric (Chris Diamantopoulos) has to go on an extended trip, he hires Gilby to run his company because Gilby told him he had previously sold a company that was just like his. This, of course, is a lie.

What drives him in this new endeavor? Partly it is because he’s fallen in love with Rachel and the other part is that he wants to be successful. With nowhere to live, he moves back in with his mother May (Colleen Camp). His mother has never told him who is father was because she slept around a lot and has no idea whose Gilby’s father is. After berating his mom for a name, she finally names a man, James Lance (Arthur J. Nascarella) as his father which is, of course, a lie.

All of these lies, get found out and Gilby, Rachel, May, James, and Eric all finally get the truth. And as we all know the truth does finally set Gilby free.

Kranz is very good in this role. He’s funny, self-effacing, and convincing with the stories he tells. Annable is strong as the woman wanting a different life than the privileged one she has. She has to own her truth as well. Nascarella is very good as Gilby’s potential father. Diamantopoulos is strong as the company owner whose self-importance has him missing the beauty of his wife. Camp is funny and excellent as Gilby’s mother. Phil Allocco wrote and directed a fun and pointed indie film.

Overall: This is a nice little film that is funny and has a story worth telling.

Thor: Ragnarok

First Hit: Found this film and story to be silly and having a mediocre plot.

I know I’m not the target audience for superhero adventures. What I find is that the more films are made about these superheroes the less plausible they become. The fantasy kingdoms have no basis in anything relatable and with the stupidity and/or lack of depth of most of the characters, I check-out while watching them.

Here we have Thor (Chris Hemsworth) who is being imprisoned by a fire demon named Surtur (why, how and so what), learns that his father Odin (Anthony Hopkins) is no longer in his home world of Asgard (why, how and so what) and that everything is going to be succumbed by the prophecy of Ragnarok. This prophecy tells of the death of the gods including Thor because he’s the God of Thunder. This might be a good thing as these characters are getting long in tooth and stretched far beyond their original purpose. More importantly, they aren't interesting any longer.

Breaking free, he discovers that his brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston) has been posing as their father Odin in Asgard. Together they endeavor to find their father Odin. In comes the older sister Hela (Cate Blanchett) who is the goddess of death and tells Loki and Thor that she’s taking over the kingdom of Asgard.

From here it just gets bad, we have flights of fancy to a planet called Sakaar where Grandmaster (Jeff Goldblum) holds court. He pits Thor against Hulk/Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) in a fight to the finish. Then they meet a drunk Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) who relinquishes her drunken lost ways and decides to fight the good fight to kill Hela.

Was there anything I liked? The tongue-in-cheek stuff was OK, but this film is all over the map in time, space, and story.

I didn’t care about any of the characters. I thought that many of the sets were fun to look at. Didn’t think the story was compelling or interesting. I wondered by Blanchett and Hopkins would do these parts. The constant battles are the same everywhere and there’s nothing new under the sun here.

I was left thinking; why can’t someone get creative?

Hemsworth did what he was told. There’s no real acting here, just a modern man playing a god and losing his hair along the way. Wondering if he gets his hammer back in the next movie. Ruffalo was OK, nothing interesting in this role for him. Thompson was adequate to the role. Goldblum was his over the top Goldblum – when will he actually act as something other than a smart-alecky buffoon. Blanchett was good, but I couldn’t help but wonder why she took this on. Hopkins, obviously, does things for money in some cases and this is one of them. Hiddleston was OK as the evil brother. Eric Pearson and Craig Kyle wrote a very mediocre, lackluster script. Taika Waititi threw everything at the audience and the outcome was how much shit actually stuck on the wall? Very little.

Overall: I’ve got to quit going to Marvel films because it is too hard to make the story work with what I see on the screen.

Suburbicon

First Hit: A poorly conceived attempt to be relevant, darkly funny, and mysterious.

I generally like films written by Joel and Ethan Coen. I've previously enjoyed films directed by George Clooney. Actors Matt Damon and Julianne Moore always make roles better than they are written so I was looking forward to seeing this film. However, the mixture of this group didn’t resonate as something valid or comprehensive.

There were out-loud funny moments in a dark humor sort of way, but most of the time, the lack of information to string the film together had me a bit flummoxed.

Based in 1959, planned clean beautiful communities were sprouting up all over the United States. In Suburbicon there are two major stories. One, is about a black family moving into this all white neighborhood and how they are treated. Horribly is the answer to this part of the film. The second is how does Gardner Lodge (Matt Damon) respond to being pressured to repay an outstanding loan? Not very well.

The set up to the neighborhood of Suburbicon is that this is an upcoming proactive modern community that allows everyone to be prosperous. Everyone can live there, unless you have a different skin color. That's what Mr. and Mrs. Myers (Leith M. Burke and Karimah Westbrook respectively) quickly find out. Each night neighbors gather around their home and shout racist epithets at the home. Each night, the crowd gets larger. And the Myers simply, elegantly, and clearly ignore the rants.

In a symbolic scene in the grocery store, the store manager stands behind the checker and tells Mrs. Myers that each item she wants to buy is $20.00, is pointedly outrageous; “bread? $20.00, Milk? $20.00.” Instead of raising her voice and acting out, with a smile on her face, she leaves the store to go shop somewhere else.

The upside of this aspect of the story is that the Myers' son Andy (Tony Espinosa) strikes up a great friendship with Nicky (Noah Jupe) who is Gardner and his wife Rose’s (Julianne Moore) son. They ride bikes together and play catch with a baseball together. Both boys are surviving their own private hell.

Gardner’s story is more elusive in that we don’t know why he’s in debt. We are introduced to him and his wife Rose, who is in a wheelchair, as they are being shaken down in their house by loan enforcers. His wife dies from the incident but we later learn that Gardner may have something to do with the death, just like he had something to do with her being in a wheelchair. Margaret (also Julianne Moore), who is Rose's twin sister is visiting them and helping to manage their household.

The way Gardner deals with the death of his wife, the inclusion of his wife's sister into the household, the moralistic and societal way he tells his son that he’s too young to understand what is going on in the family and the world, and how the violence is used to resolve his issues, just didn’t work well. There were too many unanswered questions nor was there a clear plot line.

There seemed to be an element of this film that was trying to be cutesy while also being edgy and it just didn’t work. Many of the sets were nice to see as they reminded me of growing up in that time period. I didn’t think the two major stories were integrated very well and certainly weren't well matched to make it work holistically.

Damon was OK and it wasn’t his acting that failed, it was mostly the script and Clooney’s poor direction of the poorly conceived script. Moore was OK in both roles and I thought the best part was her being interviewed by the insurance investigator. Westbrook was probably brought the best acting to the film. She embodied the role of smiling through the racist actions against her and her family. Jupe did a really good job as the son trying to figure out why his mom is gone, his dad is fighting people, and his aunt Margaret is living with them. Espinosa was very good as the neighbor kid who was attempting to put the racism behind him and just be a young kid. The Coen’s script had some bones but it wasn’t a good final product. Clooney just didn’t have a handle on a unifying theme and objective point to this film.

Overall:  Not worth the time to see it.

Thank You for Your Service

First Hit:  Powerful and, at times, very realistic about the struggles vets have getting support from the VA.

Adam Schuman (Miles Teller) is back from serving in Iraq as the person who leads a group finding  IEDs. He’s good at it because he senses where they are. After serving 15 months in Iraq, he comes home to Kansas to his wife Saskia (Haley Bennett), his daughter whom he knows and his son who was born while he was away.

The audience sees how he buries his angst towards what he’s been through and, in particular, certain events that he feels guilty about. Specifically, he’s pained over the loss of Sergeant First Class James Doster (Brad Beyer) who took his place in a Humvee outing that got him killed. It is especially painful because Saskia’s best friend is Amanda Doster (Amy Schumer) James’ wife.

He's also in pain because one of his men gets shot in the head and he tries to carry him downstairs to save him and drops him possibly causing more injury.

Adam is especially close with two others who served with him Specialist Tausolo Aieti (Beulah Koale) and Billy Waller (Joe Cole). Tausolo (aka - Solo) has a severe case of PTSD, and although he just wants to go back to Iraq where he feels comfortable, the Army medical team and his wife do not want him to go back. His memory is shot, he’s jumpy and he hallucinates. So what is he to do now?

Billy returns to find his apartment bare because fiancé has left him and didn’t tell him. He’s shocked and filled with sadness and dismay and commits suicide in-front of her at her place of employment as a bank teller.

This sets up the story about how our country takes care of our wounded. The physical wounds are one thing, but the inner wounds of PTSD are killing people everywhere all the time and the US Government doesn’t do enough to help them.

The lines of chairs filled with people holding a number to get served at the VA is shocking. Having tried to get VA service attention for my own Vietnam disabilities was horrible, yet here we see how much worse it has gotten. Vets stand in long lines, only to be told they don’t have the right form, or the right line to help them through the process.

The look of disbelief on Solo’s face when they tell him they have no record of the explosive incident of which he had to pull a burning Doster out of a blown-up Humvee, tells it all. Shock and sadness. What is worse is that they make him find someone to document the event.

The war scenes felt real and were well filmed. There wasn’t a lot of them, but enough to make the point solidly. The VA scenes were strong, yet I do feel that they could have been even more pointed. The guilt Adam wore for the responsibility to his men was embodied perfectly.

Teller was sublime. He’s become one of my favorite must see actors and if you want to see him in three great roles see; Whiplash, Only the Brave and this one Thank You for Your Service. Bennett was excellent as Adam’s wife who does everything she can to help Adam feel safe, have a place to open up while being supportive. Great job. Schumer was very good in her role as grieving wife while having the ability to not blame Adam for her husband’s death. Koale was amazing. He was excellent as the soldier that had felt the Army saved him from a unproductive life but was now abandoning him with his severe case of PTSD. Cole was very strong as the young man filled with bravado who couldn’t wait to see his fiancé again, only to have her not show up. Keisha Castle-Hughes was very good as Solo’s wife who tried to help and support her struggling husband. Jason Hall wrote and directed this film. He definitely had a good feel as to what he wanted to show. I wish more of the VA’s shortcomings were on display so that maybe we could do something about how we take young men and women, send them off to war, and discard them after all is said and done.

Overall:  This is a strong film that I liked.