If Beale Street Could Talk

First Hit: From a visual and craftsmanship point of view this film was outstanding; however, the story languished in its beauty.

The crafting of beautiful scenes and moments was enhanced by an instrumental soundtrack and excellent camera work, but the story lost its impact as it unfolded.

As the book’s author pointed out, this is a story about anyone growing up black in America. He felt that Beale Street, New Orleans, was representative of any street in any city where black suppression existed.

Tish (KiKi Layne) and Fonny (Stephen James) are shown as childhood friends taking a bath. As their lives grow, the film conclusively shows how they’ve grown up together as friends, and there is an underlying affection towards each other.

As the film dances between Fonny in prison for a crime of rape, he did not commit, and their beginning of an intimate relationship, we see the back stories of how their relationship grew and their respective families.

Tish’s family is supportive of a nineteen-year-old Tish being pregnant with a twenty-one-year-old Fonny’s child. They are happy and want to embrace this new addition. However, Fonny’s strongly religious mother and daughters are not. The scene when Tish invites Fonny’s mother, father and two daughters to her parent’s home to share the news that she’s pregnant with their son’s child was exceptionally well done.

The power of different points of view between the two mothers was very well staged. To the ends that Tish’s mom Sharon (Regina King) worked to find Fonny’s accuser to help the case to free Fonny from prison, was juxtaposed with Fonny’s mom, Mrs. Hunt (Aunjanue Ellis), not being involved in assisting Sharon in releasing Fonny. This aspect of the film was very telling.

The film makes it a point to show discrimination by showing and discussing the difficulty of Fonny and Tish finding a place to live, before his being incarcerated. There was also the policeman that placed Fonny at the scene of the supposed rape, who was looking to get back at Fonny for another encounter. These and other scenes showed how blacks were racially discriminated against.

The difficulty in this film is sharing this story in the way that the novel was created because it languishes as it goes from scene to scene. I’m not sure how it could have been done differently.

Rivers was excellent as Tish. She was both strong and vulnerable in many scenes. The tomato shopping store scene and her telling her family she was pregnant are great examples. James was excellent as the creative artist and Tish’s lover. I loved how he continually showed his love for Tish through his words and eyes. King was fantastic as Tish’s supportive mother. Her willingness to find Fonny’s witness was powerful. Ellis was great as the religious fanatic mother. This small but pivotal role was felt throughout the film, especially at the end when Tish and her son visit Fonny in prison. Michael Beach and Colman Domingo as Fonny’s and Tish’s fathers respectively were fantastic. As men sitting in a bar discussing how to care and provide for their grandchild to be wonderfully realistic. Barry Jenkins wrote and directed this film. Although this is a compelling story, at times, it was not as engaging as it needed to be.

Overall: This was a good film, and many of the actors were superb, but on the whole, it didn’t quite work.

Stan & Ollie

First Hit: This is an outstanding, beautiful, love story about how two men spent their lives together making audiences laugh.

Like a married couple, Stan Laurel (Steve Coogan) and Oliver Hardy (John C. Reilly) spent years of their lives together. In that time together, their bond of respect and friendship developed while on the road doing shows and making films making people laugh.

This film begins with the men doing a scene for a movie in their heyday. They are kibitzing in a trailer talking about the number of marriages Oliver had, all the money he had to give to these ex-wives, and his love for the ponies. The scene they shoot is one of their favorite dance routines, and it is a sight to behold.

Stan, on the other hand, was always working, writing, and thinking of gags for the duo to use in their films or stage act. As they enter the set to shoot a scene, Stan wants Oliver and himself to start their own production company because they do all the work and manager-producer Hal Roach (Danny Huston) and the film company is making all the money. Stan can get out of his contract, but Oliver cannot. They split up.

We see a brief scene where Oliver does a movie (“the elephant film”) with someone else.

The film then shifts to sixteen years later, and they are in their sixties. Their old movies still show in theaters, but few people see them, and they receive no royalties for their work. They both need money and Stan, who has never stopped working, is attempting to get financing together for a Laurel & Hardy film version of Robin Hood. To help them finance the film and to demonstrate their draw, they decide to tour England, Ireland, and Scotland to drum up interest. The hope is that the possible financier will see them in a London show.

The tour starts slowly, and they play tiny second-rate houses, stay in second-rate hotels, and the crowds are small. However, the people who do come to the shows, love them. Harry Landon (Richard Cant), their tour organizer decide they have to do some promotional newsreels. So, the film shows them promoting their shows and all of a sudden, the theaters are packed and their playing in front of audiences of 2,000.

When they reach London their respective wives, Lucille Hardy (Shirley Henderson) and Ida Kitaeva Laurel (Nina Arlanda) show up to see the big show in one of London’s most prominent theaters.

Lucille and Ida are a hoot together and separately as they are very different people and care about their husbands differently. However, the tour has been tough on both, especially Oliver. His weight challenges his heart, and his ability to move has been difficult. Then the underlying animosity, because Oliver did a film without Stan, comes out in a public argument.

Oliver has a mild heart attack and decides to retire. Stan tries to go on with a British replacement, but he cannot, it’s not Oliver, his partner, friend, and original cohort.

As the film winds up, Stan and Oliver do one more show and do their dance routine, it is sublime and brought such joy to my heart watching them.

Reilly was amazing. His expressions and ability to be Oliver Hardy was beyond anything I thought he could do. I was transported to 1957 as a little boy laughing out loud watching Laurel and Hardy on our black and white television. Coogan was equally fantastic as Stan Laurel. His routines, the one with the egg, were sublime. Arlanda and Henderson, Laurel and Hardy’s respective wives, were hilarious. I loved watching them snipe at each other and then, when watching their husbands’ last show, holding hands. Huston was superb as Hal Roach as was Cant in his role. Jeff Pope wrote a divine script. Jon S. Baird took this script and these amazing actors and made superb, finely crafted film.

Overall: I thoroughly enjoyed watching this film and would watch it again.

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.