A Dog's Way Home

First Hit: Although, at times, cute and pointedly created to pull the heartstrings, it was also boringly long and misguided.

Having a dog, I was looking forward to seeing this film about a dog finding its way back home.

It started cute enough with a group of cats and a mother dog living in an abandoned building across the street from Lucas (Jonah Hauer-King) and his mother Terri (Ashley Judd). The warning though is that the voice over begins and it will only get worse.

Terri is an Iraqi war veteran with PTSD and is a volunteer at a local VA hospital. Lucas works at the center and has been feeding the cats underneath the abandoned building. By feeding them, he’s keeping the cats alive, which also stops the tearing down of the abandoned homes by the owner.

The owner of the building gets stymied from building on the ramshackle lot because of the animals living on the premises. When animal control comes and thinks they’ve removed the animals, what they miss is a mother cat, some of her kittens, and a puppy who was still nursing from its mother.

The puppy, voice by Bryce Dallas Howard, is now being taken care of a mother cat who nurses it. At times it's funny to watch as the dog grows more massive than the momma cat. These dog and cat scenes are setups for later.

Lucas and his girlfriend Olivia (Alexandra Shipp) find the puppy and Lucas decides to keep it. Because the home Terri and Lucas live is doesn’t allow pets, they must be careful in raising the puppy, now named Bella.

Some of these scenes are cute, as were the scenes when Lucas sneaks Bella to his work because the house owner is coming to fix something in the home they rent. When Bella stumbles into a PTSD meeting of vets, of which Terri is one, the vets love Bella and Bella provides comfort as the soldiers speak about their war experiences.

The film sets up the premise of Bella finding her way home because a mean animal control officer is intent on capturing and euthanizing Bella. In the city of Denver, pit bulls are not allowed in public because they’ve been deemed as dangerous. Bella is suspected of being a pit bull although no one proves this. To keep Bella safe until he can find a new home Lucas sends Bella to live with Olivia’s family four-hundred miles away in New Mexico.

Just as Lucas travels to New Mexico to pick-up Bella, Bella was hearing her inner voice to go home, escapes and begins a long trip to find Lucas.

During this trip, Bella becomes friends with and protects a “large kitty” (it’s a cougar). During their travels together, they fight off wolves, get separated by cross-country snow skiers, and finally meet up again.

It’s during this segue of Bella’s trip home that I got bored. We spend at least 20 minutes with two men who take care of Bella and another dog, whose owner doesn’t want, only to have Bella leave and try to find Lucas and maybe “large kitty.”

This film is predictable, poorly constructed, and many scenes were only designed to make the audience feel something. This point, of making expressed emotional scenes, in itself, isn’t a bad thing, however when it’s this obvious, it a detriment to the film and demeaning to the watcher.

Hauer-King was poor. He seemed overly simple and not one who honestly thinks things through. His acting had no depth of character. Judd was outstanding as the PTSD mother. I loved her holding the wrist of the animal control officer – entirely in control of the situation. Shipp was steady as the girlfriend. She was believable in her scenes. Howard was nauseatingly childlike as the voice of Bella. As a puppy the voice was OK, and as Bella grew up, the voice didn’t change to reflect a maturing of the dog. Cathryn Michon wrote a very week script. Multiple scenes could have been shortened or removed (the whole segue with the gay men). W. Bruce Cameron did a poor job of directing this. The acts with the animal control officer were too overt and not realistic, nor were the scenes with “large kitty” and Bella on the ice.

Overall: Although the concept was good, the story was poorly constructed and overtly created for emotions.

Escape Room

First Hit: Despite the lack of depth, I thought this film was very entertaining to watch.

The premise is that six strangers, who each have had a particular type of tragedy in their lives, are thrown together into a set of increasingly dangerous rooms and must escape.

We meet Zoey (Taylor Russell) in her dorm room and electing to study during Thanksgiving holiday instead of accepting her roommate’s invitation to go home with her.

Then we’re introduced to Jason (Jay Ellis) who is a Wall Street deal maker, making a deal with one of his large clients.

We also meet Ben (Logan Miller) trying to better his life by asking for a customer interfacing position in the grocery store he works in and then gets turned down, the quick camera flash to a flask on a desk gives you a hint of his past.

Each of the six Zoey, Jason, Ben, Mike (Tyler Labine), Amanda (Deborah Ann Woll), and Danny (Nik Dodani) receive a puzzle box, and because each of them knows how to solve puzzles, find the invitation hidden within the box to meet at a specific time and place.

When these strangers arrive into the reception room, they soon find out that the voice behind the glass reception window is recorded. Ben wants to go outside and have a cigarette and tries to leave. When he turns the door handle it breaks off in his hand, they are stuck. The group realizes that this room is part of the puzzle and they have to find a way out.

The room starts transforming into an oven and furnace with heating coils and flames coming out of the walls and ceiling. Together they start looking for clues to get out of the room.

Escaping this room by learning how to work together, they find themselves in a small comfortable mountain cabin room. Going out the front door, they are locked out of the cabin and in a freezing winter scene with a frozen lake. After finding an exit door they realize they need a key to unlock it.

The winter scene is getting colder and realizing they will die of hypothermia, they start working together to find the key that will allow them to escape this room.

While looking for the key, Danny falls through the ice and dies. Now the group realizes that the challenge their engaged in, is deadly.

As the group meets the challenge of each room, people are dying on the way. Finally, the remaining group find themselves in a dark grungy hospital room, where there are beds and corresponding folders that explain the history of each of them. Each of them was a lone survivor of an event in their life. Each was picked because they found a way.

Russell was the most compelling character in the film and as we discover in the end, cannot let the game go. There may be a sequel. Miller was very good as the semi-slacker who survives the game and subsequently changed his life. Woll was the most interesting person in the game. Her fearlessness and strength were perfectly portrayed. Ellis did a great job of being an arrogant jerk. His truth was exposed. Labine was very strong as the older experienced part of the team. Dodani was odd in his role as escape room junkie. His enthusiasm towards the dilemma the group found themselves in was over done. Bragi F. Schut and Maria Melnik wrote an OK screen play. I would have liked a bit more about the characters. Adam Robitel did a good job of creating tense situations and the sets were interesting, but the lack of depth didn’t quite work.

Overall: It wasn’t a great film, but I was intrigued by the rooms, clues and a couple of the characters.

On the Basis of Sex

First Hit: Outstanding and moving film about one of the most inspirational women in United States history – ever.

In May of 2018, I saw and reviewed the documentary “RBG.” It was an amazing factual film about a woman who changed the course of gender equality in the United States.

In this dramatic version, we have Felicity Jones as Ruth Bader Ginsburg providing some of the drama behind the story of one of the most inspirational women to ever practice law in the United States. Today at 85 years old, and a Supreme Court Justice, she is still trailblazing how we look at the law and its impact on gender equality.

When the dean of Harvard Law School Erwin Griswold (Sam Waterston) invites the women who made it into his school, over for dinner at his home, he asks each of them to share why they deserve to take a man’s place at Harvard’s prestigious law school. It is a defining moment in the film to share with the audience how horribly sexist these institutions were towards women. Ginsburg’s answer is divinely dripping of sarcasm that went over Griswold’s head.

Ruth’s husband Martin (Armie Hammer) is also a law student at Harvard focusing on Tax Law. His support of his wife’s journey in law school is wonderful. Unfortunately, he contracts testicle cancer which he has only a 5% chance of beating, and Ruth, showing support, takes his classes and hers so that her husband doesn’t have to drop out of school while he recovers. Using the notes she took from his classes, she teaches Martin what he needs to know to pass his classes. She’s doing the work of two students as well as caretaker and mother.

Being a couple years behind her husband, he graduates and gets a job in a prestigious New York Cit law firm. This leaves Ruth with having to make a choice, raise their daughter alone and continue with law school at Harvard or moved with her husband and finish her schooling at Columbia. She chooses the later.

The film explores the unfairness of being a woman becoming a lawyer in this mostly man’s world. Additionally, it explores how her daughter Jane (Cailee Spaeny) is being affected by the changing culture of the 1960’s. We see how the dynamics of this culture change helped Ruth see the laws that needed changing and she found ways, with the help of Martin, to make her case to a State Supreme Court and to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Some of the scenes were amazingly poetic. Like when Martin hands a tax issue case to Ruth with the proviso, read this and you’ll see where you can make a difference. She did. I loved when Ruth takes Jane to see famed civil rights attorney Dorothy Kenyon (Kathy Bates) and upon walking back out into the streets, how Jane handles the harassing men and gets Ruth and her a cab. There were also a couple great scenes with Ruth and ACLU lead lawyer Mel Wolf (Justin Theroux). Lastly the scene in which she argues in the State Supreme Court for equal rights of a man was very well done.

For me the downsides of the film were, I would have liked Ruth’s first case in the U.S. Supreme court to be part of this film. Also, I found that Felicity’s accent fluctuations to be slightly problematic. Her voice lacked consistency.

On the upside when Jones gets ready to argue the main case at the State’s Supreme Court, she has Ruth’s look and feel down pat. Lastly, I loved the part where we see Ruth (Jones) climbing the steps to the U.S. Supreme Court and then see the real Ruth.

Felicity was very good as Ruth. Despite the accent variations, she brought a strength and character to Ruth and seemed to match the Ruth in the earlier documentary. Hammer was excellent. I loved his kind, thoughtful, and supportive lightheartedness he brought to this role. Spaeny was outstanding. I thought her portrayal of a young woman caught up in the movements of the 1960’s and also wanting to be respectful of her dynamic parents was sublime. I hope to see her in more films. Theroux was far better than I thought he’d be. My surprise is that he often takes sinister roles her here he shows a funny, smart, supportive side. Bates was sublime as with wizened civil rights lawyer who brings respect and a true grass roots feeling to the film. Waterston was excellent as the self-righteous sexist head of Harvard’s Law school. Daniel Stiepleman wrote a wonderful screenplay. Mimi Leder put the right touch on this film.

Overall: I thoroughly enjoyed this film as the first film of the year to see and review.

They Shall Not Grow Old (3D)

First Hit: This is one of the most amazing film restorations ever completed and the story it tells is astounding.

Two things that happened that sandwiched the actual film: 1) Prior to the film we learn that there is no war memorial in the US capital for WWI veterans, who effectively assisted in ending this war with their European counterparts. 2) At the end of this special presentation Director Peter Jackson shared a thirty-minute film about how they rejuvenated and revitalized these historic 100-year-old film prints.

From the opening moments you know this is going to be amazing. There is a small square scene of men marching. The pacing of movement which is usually all over the place in old films isn’t present. The pacing feels real. It is in 3D, but then the frame starts getting larger exposing, ever so slightly, more of the vision. You hear the marching and murmuring. Then voice overs of men who served in this war.

The film voice overs are men from WWI and as the film flashes back to England, we see where these men came from. They talk about how important it was to fight this war. They talk about how young many of the men were. In fact, one soldier was only thirteen, when you had to be nineteen to be eligible to join the army. All the while the images on the screen are of these young men learning and being trained on how to fight.

Slowly the film turns in to color and with the amazing technology of today, we are watching colorized 3D versions of original film shot over 100 years ago. It is utterly sublime and awe inspiring work.

We travel to Europe where we are in the trenches readying to make a final assault on the Germans. We see the first tanks used in wars. But as the film explained, this war was about artillery and how it shaped the battles from in the trenches.

As section chief in an artillery unit overseeing a 105” howitzer in Vietnam, I was entranced with the large guns used in WWI. Not much changed in all those years. The gunner, assistant gunner, primary loader, and how the breach blocks were opened and closed manually. I was transported back to my own experience.

The ending credits are accompanied by a song sung by British soldiers at that time. Mademoiselle from Armentieres is a song which bawdy lyrics were made up on the spot and as a marching song it is fantastic. Using British voices from a group of men in the English consulate their rendition brings joy and a smile as this film ends.

Jackson had many challenges. First to select the story he wanted to tell. There is a ton of footage, but he thought sticking to the British foot soldier would bring home his own heritage. Then finding ways to bring the films pacing to normal speed was challenging. Cameras back then were hand cranked so the film was created at lots of various speeds. Then the question to colorize it was asked. To Jackson credit, he simply asked, if the camera men of 100 years ago had a choice; black and white or color, which would they choose. I agree with Jackson’s choice to colorize it. In this film he worked hard to wonderfully and accurately use the right color. Even using his personal stock of WWI clothing and materials to judge the coloration process. In the film, he occasionally has one of the people in the film talking. Although, back then film did not have a soundtrack, Jackson hired lip readers who figured out what some of the soldiers were saying, then by hiring people from that region of England, had them say the lines. The amount of effort Jackson put into this film is phenomenal and shows up on the screen – perfect.

Overall: When a film moves me from sitting in a seat in a movie theater and takes me to another place, it has done its job. This film does this in spades.

Welcome to Marwen

First Hit: I loved the concept and thought behind the film, but on screen it lagged.

Using computer graphic (CG) actors in combination with real life actors is becoming more modern place in films. Here it is effective to create a world that Mark Hogancamp aka “Cap’n Hogie” (Steve Carell) creates after his memories have been literally kicked out of him. This is a true story.

Prior to the film’s beginning, Hogancamp is a graphic artist who goes into a bar, gets drunk, says something like, I like to wear high heels, to a group of four jerks. The jerks take offense, call Mark gay and beat and kick him to death’s door.

All his memories are beat out of him and his manual dexterity to draw is gone.

To keep his creativeness alive, he builds a miniature WWII village called Marwen (Mark and Women) in his side and back yards. Because so many women helped him recover, he finds dolls that represent them, and they are fighters against Nazi soldiers who appear when Hogancamp’s fears get triggered. The Nazi soldiers represent the men who nearly kicked and punched him to death.

Hogancamp’s alter ego is a doll called Cap’n Hogie who leads and fights with the women of Marwen. Together they battle the Nazi soldiers again and again.

In the battle sequences the film turns to the CG representation of the dolls. In these roles they are wonderfully done. However, as Hogancamp returns to reality, he finds himself taking pictures of the dolls that he’s staged in various poses throughout Marwen, sometimes even fighting the Nazis.

Nicol (Leslie Mann) moves in across the street and they strike up a friendship. Hogancamp falls deeply for Nicol’s kindness and kind inquisitiveness about what happened to him, the town of Marwen, and his cadre of doll women that keep the town of Marwen safe. He likes her so much he finds a new doll to represent her in his Marwen world.

Nicol’s boyfriend is a brutish jerk, much like the men that beat Hogancamp up. There are a couple of intense making scenes when Mark is talking with Nicol and the boyfriend appears.

Hogancamp is being pressed by his real life women friends, his lawyer, and Nicol to testify at the sentencing trial for the men that beat him. He’s reluctant to go to the trial and show opening, which causes him to slip into the dream world of Cap’n Hogie and the women fighters killing the Nazis intensifies.

Additionally, the brother of Roberta (Merritt Wever), one of the real-life versions of his fighters, is having a photography show of Hogancamp’s photos of Marwen in New York City. This event and the trial hearing are bringing things to a head for Hogancamp in the real world so the battles in Marwen are becoming more ferocious.

I thought the segues between real life and CG were really well done. The over done shooting and machine gun fire seem a bit excessive, but then again, they were dolls, so I guess it was required. The CG version of Nicol was wonderfully created and effectively done and captured the essence of Nicol.

Carell was good as Hogancamp. His Cap’n Hogie was even better. However, I cannot put my finger on what didn’t work and maybe it was because there were too many doll scenes. Mann was crazy wonderful. I loved her gentle kindness and empathy. She was perfect in this role. Wever was outstanding as the owner of the craft store where Hogancamp got all his supplies. Her support and getting Mark into a show in New York City was wonderfully portrayed. Caroline Thompson and Robert Zemeckis wrote this screenplay. I think they spent more time in the CG active doll world than needed and could have done more digging into the background of the story. Zemeckis directed this film.

Overall: I loved the end of the film when they showed a captioned picture of the real-life Mark Hogancamp.