BlacKkKlansman

First Hit: Fantastic film about race relations in the United States while reminding the audience about how far we have to go.

This film opens with a clip from the film Gone with the Wind, showing Scarlett walking through hundreds of dead and injured bodies from the Civil War. Then after a horribly racist rant film clip of Dr. Kennebrew Beaureguard (Alex Baldwin) setting the stage for the depth of white racism, this story begins.

We then move to the late 1970’s and Spike Lee captures the feeling, look, and sounds of the time. Ron Stallworth (John David Washington) is looking to find work and sees a billboard advertising about being a cop in Colorado Springs. He’s got the perfect afro and in the interview he's told he'll be the first black cop on the police force - the Jackie Robinson of their force.

Stuck in the records room, he gets on a detail to monitor a black power meeting put together by Patrice Dumas (Laura Harrier). The star of the meeting is Stokely Carmichael (Corey Hawkins), now named Kwame Ture, who gives an amazing talk about ending racism in America and embracing black power. Engaging Patrice after the meeting, Ron was both awe struck by Patrice's commitment to the movement along with being smitten by Patrice the beautiful woman.

After this initial work as a detective, he ends up convincing the chief that he could infiltrate the local KKK chapter. Of course, everyone on the force laughs until, on the phone, he gets an interview with the local leader Walter Breachway (Ryan Eggold). When Walter asks to meet him in person, Ron elicits the assistance of white Detective Flip Zimmerman (Adam Driver).

Together they make an amazing team as they navigate the process of being Ron Stallworth, Klansman nominee.

To move his official membership along, Ron calls David Duke (Topher Grace) to ask him if he could get his staff to hurry the membership along. David says he’d be happy to help and that he’ll come to Colorado Springs for Ron’s induction into the KKK. All during this time Ron is dating Patrice and Flip is pretending to be Ron during one on one meetings with the KKK.

These components plus a possible bombing and cross-burning, the story about Ron, Flip, Patrice, Walter, David, and Felix (Jasper Paakkonen) as Walter’s radical right-hand man, the story became wildly engaging.

As the film unfolds, Spike Lee does an excellent job of giving the audience, scenes that run the gambit from humor (Ron calling David for the last time), to intenseness (Flip being pulled into Felix’s basement because Felix thinks Flip is a Jew), to today’s racist displays (when the end of the film easily segues into the 2017 Charlottesville march). Then, watching Harry Belafonte as civil rights leader Jerome Turner, I was transported to how real this story was.

The brilliance of Ron and Patrice moving down the hall almost surrealistically and comically as they watched a cross burning through a window was inspired.

Washington was absolutely wonderful as Ron Stallworth. He perfectly captured the struggle of a black man believing in the law and the black power movement. Harrier was divine as the President of the local black caucus. She definitely looked the part as a radical black woman and I couldn’t help but think about Angela Davis each time she was on the screen. Driver was amazing as Ron’s white counterpart. He embraced the role of Ron perfectly. Eggold was very strong as the local KKK leader. Grace was credibly incredible as David Duke. Paakkonen as the wildly unpredictable member of the local KKK was sublime. Belafonte was beautiful speaking his truth through his character. Charlie Wachtel, David Rabinowitz, Kevin Willmott, and Spike Lee wrote an engaging power script from Ron Stallworth’s book. Lee showed me again, why you can never count him out from making a powerfully amazing film.

Overall: This is the second film I’ve seen this year that is Oscar worthy.

Eighth Grade

First Hit: Outstanding acting and script gives us an insightful view of what it is like to be in the Eighth Grade today.

I cannot express the wonderful way Elsie Fisher (Kayla) expressed the insecurity and desire to be a confident eighth grader.

The film drops in on Kayla while she makes videos that give the audience the belief that she’s confident and very secure in herself. The fact is that her videos represents what she wants to be, not who she is.

She lives with her dad Mark Day (Josh Hamilton). He’s trying to be both mother and father to Kayla and he does the best he can. Their interaction is very genuine in that there is an awkwardness that it palpable, and also ensconced in love.

When Kayla unexpectedly gets invited to a pool party at the most popular girl’s house, her awkwardness and vulnerability were perfectly expressed. Loved her interaction with Gabe (Jake Ryan) and her dream love Riley (Daniel Zolghadri).

Her eighth-grade class goes to high school to spend a day with a shadow high schooler. She prays in bed the night before that she really wants the day to go well. Her prayers are answered, she’s linked with Olivia (Emily Robinson). Olivia likes her and shows her genuine friendship. For the first time, it seems as though she has a real friend that sees and accepts her as she is.

There is a wonderfully sweet scene with her father as she burns a box of memories in the back yard. There is a corresponding sweet scene as she makes a box of memories for her future self.

Fisher is absolutely amazing. She was the perfect confused, self-questioning, eighth grader. Hamilton is wonderful as her dad. He’s appropriately unsure of how to respond and guide an eighth-grade girl. Zolghadri is very strong as the cute guy in the class who expects girls to like him. Ryan is very funny as the awkward young man who has some interest in Kayla. Robinson is great as the girl who was maybe once like Kayla but, in high-school, found her group. Bo Burnham wrote and directed this film. His ability to write this dialogue for a girl is to be commended. His direction was spot on and provided a glimpse into today’s young girls.

Overall: This was a wonderfully developed and executed film.

Dark Money

First Hit: A fantastic view of how the Supreme Court’s Citizens United VS F.E.C. decision changed the course of politics to; whomever has the most money behind them wins.

This film uses the State of Montana’s experience with corporations taking control of the government to make its point.

In the early 1900’s Montana was the epicenter for copper production in the United States. Anaconda Copper company started excavating the beginning of the worlds largest open mine pit which also turned into one of worst environmental calamities in the world. As this pit grew, money was made, and the interests of the company started butting up against the people of Montana who wanted to be safe from the poisoned mine pit. To keep control large sums of money was used to bribe government officials to look past the destruction of the communities affected by the mines. Soon, Montana’s government was controlled by mining companies.

The citizens revolted and wrote the strongest legislation possible against this sort of government control by corporations and their money. Other states followed because citizens everywhere were getting the short end of the stick through corporation abuse of legislation that supported their profits.

This film follows John S. Adams investigative reporting through modern day events in Montana where the Koch brothers and others like them are attempting to control local and state government agendas by having candidates who meet their criteria, sign up for their campaign programs, and vote the way the financiers want. All these events are the result on the Supreme Court decision to allow, for profit, not for profit, and other groups and corporations to donate money and resources to political elections.

To me the irony of this is that the “Citizens United” name sort of implies individual citizens, it doesn’t it is about wealthy groups of individuals and companies to control government for their monetary gains.

My favorite part of the film was watching State Senator Art Wittich R-Bozeman stand on the Montana Senate floor threatening other senators who want to create a law to restrict corporate campaign donations by saying “the worm will turn.” What happens is that he gets convicted for illegal contributions. I couldn't help but think the worm did turn.

Kimberly Reed and Jay Arthur Sterrenberg wrote a powerful story and Reed’s direction was fantastic by bringing the past and present together to show why we’ve not learned well enough from our past mistakes.

Overall: This was a powerful film about how corruption by money is killing a true democracy.

Mission: Impossible - Fallout

First Hit: Holds tension and action throughout, however it is long and we all know the ending.

I’ve said this many a time, what I like about Tom Cruise (here as IMF Agent Ethan Hunt) is that he’s always all in for the characters he chooses. As Ethan Hunt he’s one with the role. What is always disappointing is that we always know how the film is going to end. For instance, my previous review of the film Blindspotting, I had no idea how the movie would end, that’s what partly made it great. Watching Mission, I know that Hunt is going to save the day in the nick of time and he doesn't fail.

Despite that, this film is action packed from the very beginning and creates tension by delivering on some hair-raising predicaments and stunts. One of the nice touches was how the film began. Playing the Mission: Impossible theme music, it showed brief pictures of was to come, just like the television show use to do. The cast is solid, especially Hunts team of Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames) and Benjamin “Benji” Dunn (Simon Pegg). Their chemistry of working together on previous Mission films makes the impossible missions more possible and believable to the audience – they are pros.

The plot has Hunt attempting to obtain three plutonium devices that are on the black market. The US Government want to keep them out of the hands of terrorists. Hunt makes the choice to save the life of Luther over obtaining the devices.

Solomon Lane (Sean Harris), who Hunt previously captured and put into prison, is attempting to obtain the devices through surrogates. He wants to use the devices to make a point that the world must suffer greatly if it is to get better. His former organization, The Apostles, want the weapons as well.

One of the plot devices is to have CIA agent August Walker (Henry Cavill) join the team to protect the CIA’s interest in IMF’s plot to re-obtain the devices. Walker is directly under CIA Director Erica Stone (Angela Bassett). The twist is that Walker is also playing John Lark who is an enemy of the CIA and IMF.

Hunt and his team are under the direction of former CIA Director Alan Hunley (Alec Baldwin) who now leads the IMF task force. The film shows the tension between the CIA and IMF because the CIA doubts that the IMF can get the job done.

Another twist to this plot is the MI6 agent Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson) who has to redeem herself to her organization, therefore she must also obtain the plutonium devices.

Lastly, trying to broker a sale of the devices the story has the White Widow (Vanessa Kirby). I'm not totally sure why this part was needed but it worked.

What the film has is a number of different groups trying to get control of;  the plutonium, a captured prisoner, or Hunt.

There are plenty of gun battle scenes, lots of chases (cars, motorcycles, running, and helicopter), and plenty of costume changes that the Mission: Impossible team is noted for. Everything is done very well, and the cliff hanging scene is simply a great cliffhanger. Lastly, one of the highlights for me was the different ways the theme song was used throughout the film.

Cruise always puts everything into his action roles. He can be funny, self-effacing, and believable all at the same time. Cavill is good as the agent with dual identity. Rhames is fantastic as part of the IMF team. He shows smarts, affability, and is fully believable in his role. Pegg is spot on as the one always questioning whether a plan Hunt has devised will work or not. In the end, he does his part and is often the one who figures things out. Ferguson is excellent as one of two women Hunt admires and loves. As an agent of MI6 she’s excellent. Harris is good as the slightly off-base mastermind who wants to teach the world a lesson or two. Bassett is good as the CIA Director that is elusive about her commitment to the IMF team. Baldwin was very good as Hunt’s immediate boss. Kirby was good as the White Widow, but I found it difficult to buy into why she held so much sway. Michelle Monaghan was excellent as Hunt’s former wife who is in jeopardy at the end of the film. Christopher McQuarrie wrote and directed this adventure with complete idea of what he wanted and with a knowing how to build tension to the end.

Overall: This was a fun filled film although it was a bit long.

Blindspotting

First Hit: Extremely powerful and pointed film and raises the bar for Best Picture of the Year.

Opening the film, is a sequence of short video shots of Oakland. Among the short montage of clips are the Fox Theater, Oakland homes, jump roping, Whole Foods, and a shoving match between two women on BART. Each of these are perfectly brief and set the stage for the racially tense film to come.

Collin (Daveed Diggs) is living in a probation facility and he’s got just a few days to go before he’s free. He came out of Santa Rita prison for something, we find out later, was a horrible fight outside a bar.

He’s working for a moving company with his lifelong friend and troublemaker Miles (Rafael Casal). Miles has a hair trigger and lashes out from time to time. As a racially mixed friendship, they have each other’s back and have had their fair share of run-ins together.

One of the early opening scenes, they are sitting in a very tricked out car, smoking weed, while Collin laments that he’s only few days away from being free of his court mandated probation. When Miles finds a pistol between the seats he brandishes it about, Collin gets upset and asks Miles to keep it away from him.

What does Miles do? He finds more guns in the car, playfully holds them up, and buys one. Collin, although upset, just asks Miles to not let me see or know that he has the gun on him while they work or hang out together. The way this scene unfolds is both pointed and funny.

Miles lives with Ashley (Jasmine Cephas Jones) and they have a son Sean (Ziggy Baitinger). Collin picks Miles up for work the moving truck. Because Collin is on probation he uses the truck to get home and to work. Arriving at the moving company's office to punch the time-clock, you can tell that Collin and Val (Janina Gavankar), the front desk receptionist and dispatcher, have some history together. It is obvious that she’s called off the relationship by the way they interact.

After dropping Miles off at home one night, Collin is waiting for the light to turn green when all of a sudden, a black man appears in front of his truck, looks at Collin, and continues to run. An Oakland policeman soon follows and when the policeman is adjacent to the truck’s door, he fires four shots and kills the running man. The policeman turns and looks directly at Collin.

This scene and image haunts Collin throughout the film. From this point on, the ominous tone of guns, racially charged words, social-economic and cultural differences begin to shape this film. The gun Miles owns plays a prominent role in two incredibly powerful scenes, as does their friendship and how it is tested. Collin wants to clean up his act, but racial tensions that build in the community because of the shooting, the have and have nots, and what he's going to do next once he's off probation makes his path difficult to master.

The term "Blindspotting" is explained in a very moving scene with Val and Collin and it’s usage is one I will not forget as it points out something we all do.

Diggs is sublime. The range of emotions and actions he shows as Collin are engaging and powerful. Casal as Miles was amazing. He’s powerfully rowdy but when Ashley reaches out to him about a particular incident, his compassion and love is amazingly evident. Gavankar is wonderful as Collin’s former girlfriend and truck dispatcher. She holds true to her beliefs and is a powerful force in Collin’s life. Jones was wildly wonderful. Her clarity of boundaries was perfectly expressed. Baitinger was great as Miles and Ashley's young boy. Ethan Embry as the Oakland Police Officer who shoots the running black man is incredibly engaging in both his scenes; the shooting and in his confrontation with Collin. Tisha Campbell-Martin as Mama Liz, Collin’s mother, is a scene stealer. Casal and Diggs wrote this insightful engagingly powerful script. Carlos Lopez Estrada directed this story with amazingly deft hands. He totally captured the feel of this powerful story.

Overall: Because this film is so powerful it must be considered one of my favorites as film of the year.