Beirut

First Hit:  I really liked the way this film was put together and came to fruition.

Some people don’t like Tony Gilroy films because he doesn’t lead the story with obviousness. The script for Beirut is the same way. However, I like his films (the Bourne films, Duplicity, Michael Clayton to name a few) for this very reason. Viewers go on a ride and must trust the storyteller and director to bring the film home satisfyingly.

In this film, there are two different time periods. The first one is the 1970’s and Beirut is a melting pot of people and religions. It opens with Mason Skiles (Jon Hamm) hosting a party in his Beirut home. As part of the US Government, there is a senator and other diplomats present. A young boy named Karim has been partially adopted by Mason and his wife.

Government agents come to collect Karim because his notorious radical brother Jassim/Rami (Ben Affan) is loose and they hope to use Karim to capture him. In the battle, Government plan goes bad, Mason’s wife is killed, and Karim is taken by Islamic radicals. The film then moves forward ten years.

Mason is a drunk, back in the United States, and mediating union/management negotiations. Sandy Crowder (Rosamund Pike) comes to collect Mason because Cal Riley (Mark Pellegrino) has been abducted by a Islamic group and there’s been a request for Mason to negotiate his release.

Mason reluctantly goes back to Beirut and the flood of feelings come back from his time there some ten years earlier.

The negotiations are tough and there are many people, even in the US Government, who have different agendas with this issue. In essence, it is now Karim (Idir Chender) who is negotiating for his brother’s release and they're using Cal as the bait.

The way the films shows the 70’s was perfect. I loved the detail used. Everything from the hair styles to the sideburns on Mason. The film quality also reflected the time, with the tint and style. I loved the way the audience falls into the story and isn’t given large hints or steps that telegraph the film’s direction.

Hamm was fantastic. His portrayal of the caring loving husband and then to the drunk who cares and doesn’t care is phenomenal. Affan was strong in this minimal role. Chender was excellent as the older version of Karim. Pellegrino was very strong as the kidnapped US Government service representative. Pike was excellent as the tough, thoughtful, and daringly intelligent agent. Tony Gilroy wrote an outstanding script. I loved how it slowly comes together in the end. Brad Anderson did a wonderful job of making this script come alive.

Overall: This was an excellent film and expressed the complications of the middle east quite well.

A Quiet Place

First Hit: Well done film and the silence of the actors made all the difference in the world.

The film takes out all the drama of how these aliens arrived and take over the planet by starting at day 89.

We surmise through captions of their sign language, that the Abbott family is one of just a few families surviving the alien invasion. Husband Lee (John Krasinski), wife Evelyn (Emily Blunt), and children Regan (Millicent Simmonds), Marcus (Noah Jupe), and Beau (Cade Woodward) are introduced scavaging through an empty store, in a vacant town, for food and supplies.

The aliens cannot see but have a highly-developed sense of hearing. They hunt for their food by listening and attacking. Therefore no one talks and uses sign language. Due to a child’s curiosity and desire to play with a toy, he turns on one of the toys they get from the store and the noise elicits a swift response and killing of Beau early in the film.

This was an effective way for the audience to become anxious of any noise the characters make during the scenes. When Evelyn becomes pregnant with a child, I sat their shocked because I know how much noise a baby makes let alone the noise the mother may make giving birth.

The film moves along in time by showing a graphic of how many days have gone by; we assume that it’s the number of days after the alien invasion.

We learn that there are other survivors because in the evening Lee lights a fire on top of a tower and as he looks around the valley and hills we see other fires.

The careful laying of sand on the paths they walk show a thoughtful detail that enhances the films successfulness. Adding to this is a family drama of Regan thinking her dad doesn’t love her because she assisted her youngest in getting the toy that caused his demise. She’s also deaf which did two things: Created a way for the family to be very adept at sign language and for Lee to find ways to help her daughter by experimenting with hearing aids that also sent signals to directly through her skull.

Suspense is high in this film and the noise level is low which made for a great combination.

Krasinski was wonderful as father, husband and champion of keeping his family alive and well. Loved the hike he took with Marcus to help him move through his fear. Blunt was fantastic. Her expressions of love and fear were remarkable. Having the baby in the circumstances the film sets up, was amazing. Simmonds was truly a gift in this film. She carried her struggle at being different, smart and independent in a sublime way. Jupe was excellent as the middle child who feared their circumstance the most, yet became heroic. Bryan Woods and Scott Beck wrote a wonderful screenplay that elicited curious suspense. Krasinski did an excellent job directing this story, wife and himself.

Overall: One of the better horror films I’ve seen in that loud noise wasn’t used to try to shock and scare me.

Chappaquiddick

First Hit: We all knew how despicable Ted Kennedy’s actions were, this film just puts pictures to it.

When the headlines came out that “Teddy” (Jason Clarke) had driven off a bridge with Mary Jo Kopechne (Kate Mara) in the car and he survived while she drowned, the nation was shocked. As the story came out that Ted did not report this accident well into the next day, Ted became despicable and his and the Kennedy family's credibility sank to a new low.

This film shows the privileged way that Ted acted based on his being a Kennedy. Ted’s father Joseph (Bruce Dern) ran the Kennedy family with a iron crooked fist. His team of people who were on-call to protect the Kennedy name only exaggerated the privileged arrogant family ways.

Recalling the original news in the newspaper and seeing film footage of Teddy wearing a neck brace to gain sympathy was horrible then and even worse in this film. His manipulation of his Chief of Staff Joseph Gargan (Ed Helms) was painful to watch.

From a film point of view, using true accounts and the documents from the inquest, what is presented appears to be a fair reenactment of this tragic event.

Much is said about the horrific events of his older brother’s untimely deaths, two through assassination, and how Joe Kennedy expected the remaining son to carry on the family legacy. All Teddy wanted was his father’s love and respect for who he was.

Does Teddy make up for his lack of integrity around this and other events? That’s a judgment call and even though he was called “The Lion of the Senate,” this film does little to shed light on his career. It is a film about his doing nothing for Mary Jo as she slowly suffocated and drowned in an upside-down car.

Clarke was OK as Teddy. I didn’t think he showed enough of the “lion” within him but maybe the “lion” came later in life. He did a great job of being arrogant and childlike in his decision making. Mara was very good. Unfortunately, she’s not in the film a long time, but her Mary Jo stays with you during the remaining part of the film. Dern was excellent as a handicapped and old Joe Kennedy. His looks of disdain towards Teddy were perfect. Helms was excellent as Teddy’s right hand man who finally couldn’t take being Ted’s slave and foil and therefore left. Taylor Allen and Andrew Logan wrote a good script that seemed to capture the time and the feeling of crime. John Curran directed this film.

Overall: This film only validated my feelings about Teddy as a guy spending his life trying to make amends for being an unthoughtful arrogant man from an influential family.

Blockers

First Hit: There are some very funny scenes although at times they felt too staged.

Anyone that has been a parent to a teenager and any teenager, can and will appreciate, laugh, and smile at many of the setups and scenes in this film.

Lisa (Leslie Mann), Mitchell (John Cena), and Hunter (Ike Barinholtz) have daughters who meet up in grade school.  They are going to be lifelong friends.

Julie (Kathryn Newton) is Lisa’s daughter and doesn’t have a father. She and Lisa are very close and it is obvious that when Julie leaves for college, Lisa will be alone. Oddly we have no idea how Lisa financially survives so well. The only hint is that Julie is the product of a famous rocker.

Mitchell’s daughter is Kayla (Geraldine Viswanathan). Her mother Marcie (Sarayu Blue) is a strong feminist who runs the show in their house. However, Mitchell has a close relationship with his daughter and guided her to become physically strong and confident, like him. Sam (Gideon Adlon) is Hunter’s daughter. Her parents are divorced and Hunter has been less active in Sam’s life recently.

Together the three girls decide to lose their virginity on Prom night as a way to do something momentous together prior to leaving high school and going off to college. The parents learn about this plan and decide to stop the girls from making, what they think, will be the biggest mistake of their lives.

The film takes you on this journey of them trying to find their daughters, how they confront their daughter’s choice in men, and what they ultimately learn. Conversely the movie also shows how the daughters find what makes them strong fine human beings and their honesty with each other.

The upside is that there are numerous out-loud funny scenes and situations. The downside is that there are moments that seem overly set up. It is almost like they looked at the script and said, the next scene we’ll do this, then they did the scene. It felt blockish at times.

Mann is always interesting because she can be very funny in a very straight sort of way. She’s quirky, goofy, and funny. Cena was funny and his physical size and presence was put to good use in this film. That he wore his phone in a hip holster added to his goofiness. Barinholtz was good and his final scene with his daughter was wonderful. Newton was excellent as Mann’s daughter. Viswanathan was wonderful as a young girl ready to try anything while mindfully figuring out what is appropriate for her. Adlon was perfect as the young girl finally acknowledging her sexuality to herself, friends, and father. Ramona Young was very good as the young girl who entices Sam to come into her own. Blue is wonderful as the strong mother. Miles Robbins (as Connor, Kayla’s boy choice) was excellent. Graham Phillips (as Austin, Julie’s boy choice) was very good. Jimmy Bellinger (as Chad, Sam’s original choice) was hilarious. Brian Kehoe and Jim Kehoe wrote a good script, it just felt too set up at times. Kay Cannon directed. Her strength was making funny scenes funny but some scenes were too pre-setup.

Overall:  If you want to laugh at some silliness, this movie will provide the laughs.

Ready Player One

First Hit: Entertaining visual story into a possible future filled with a decayed reality and virtual fantasy.

Steven Spielberg knows how to create complete stories on the screen. I never leave a Spielberg film with questions, and this film does the same. He always provides a full story. This is one of his strengths and much of the time it is the small details that ties the knot on the bow. Spielberg also knows how to relate with young actors to get the best out of them. However, his obvious strength is the visual rendering of the story in an impressive pictorial way, and he does it again in this film.

This story takes place in 2044 and the world and its resources are falling apart. This is rendered impressively by the vertical stacking of mobile homes in a way that shows both ingenuity of the owners and slum like conditions in which they exist. Most people have given up hope and the few scenes displaying this poverty is enough. To escape their lives, people put on virtual reality (VR) headsets. In their VR world, their lives are given a new level of purpose and dreams. Through their avatars, they can be what they want to be and participate in the games and different worlds as they wish.

Halliday aka Anorak (Mark Rylance) is the creator and maker of the most popular game, Oasis. He’s a bookish man, who does not relate well with people although his business partner Ogden Morrow, aka OG, (Simon Pegg) seems to create a place and space for Halliday to flourish.

Before Halliday’s death, Halliday decides to create a contest that, when a gamer finds the three keys hidden deep within Oasis, the winner will receive the golden egg. This golden egg includes owning and running the company that makes Oasis as well as unfounded riches.

A competitor company IOI (Innovation Online Industries), run by Nolan Sorrento (Ben Mendelsohn), wants the golden egg so that his lagging company can reap the fruits of Halliday’s work. To do so he hires lots of people to be avatars with one goal; to help him find the three keys and to obtain the golden egg.

The film’s main character and hero is Wade Watts, aka Parzival, (Tye Sheridan) who is smart, kind, thoughtful, and an excellent Oasis player. Wade’s parents died years ago and he lives with his aunt and her wildly erratic husband. In the VR world Parsival’s best friend is Aech, aka Helen, (Lena Waithe). On his trek to find the first key, he helps out Art3mis, aka Samantha, (Olivia Cooke). He does this because he thinks her avatar is beautiful and believes they connect at a deeper level.

Together Parzival, Art3mis, and Aech work to solve the puzzle's problems and find the three keys. Along the way they are joined by other players who carry the same ideals.

This film spends more time in the VR mode than reality mode, however the switches between the worlds was done in a wonderful way. The switches make sense. There are also scenes when there is a belief that a character thinks they’re in reality mode, when they aren’t.

The best part is that the team working with Parzival are strong and interesting in both reality and VR modes. Both worlds created by Spielberg are wonderful in that they are realistically flawed and complete. The visuals are not so overladen and overdone that they overwhelm the film and story.

Sheridan was excellent as Parzival, the films main hero. He makes an excellent Clark Kent type character. Waithe as Aech was so much fun. As a male avatar, she was wonderfully strong and compassionate which reflected her deeper reality character as well. Cooke was great as Art3mis. Her bad-ass avatar character belied her reality character of being insecure. Pegg was wonderful as OG and his kindness carried through the film. Rylance was sublime as the quirky, lost, smart creator of Oasis. His social ineptness was perfect. Mendelsohn was very good as the villain running IOI and wanting to be the top dog. Zak Penn and Ernest Cline wrote and engaging screenplay effectively rendered by the inimitable Spielberg.

Overall:  This is a film the audience can sit back and simply enjoy the ride.