Destroyer

First Hit: Powerfully acted by Nicole Kidman in a story that teeters on the edge of oblivion at every turn.

After seeing Kidman in this film, I was struck by how amazing she is at morphing from innocent intense, edgy beauty, to a hollowed out, full of anger, women with one thing on her mind, revenge. When we see her becoming an undercover agent, I was reminded of this freckled face beauty in an early film, “Dead Calm.”

The film floats in and out of time. At first, we meet Erin Bell (Kidman) as a depraved, starved, focused angry addicted detective. Then we go back to seventeen years earlier when, as a brave, intense, and attractive police officer being assigned to work undercover with Chris (Sebastian Stan) to reign in a cult-like leader, Silas (Toby Kebbell), who robs banks.

Opening with a depraved Detective Bell walking onto a murder scene; she’s barely able to walk let alone articulate why she’s there. The officers at the scene, probe her, asking why she is there, and what she knows about it. She picks up a $100 bill that’s tainted with purple dye. She looks at a handgun that has been altered to be untraceable and says to the responding officers “I know who killed him.”

Beginning the story this way and Bell’s response lead you to believe, she’s now on a path to find and finish something that started many years earlier, to kill Silas.

Earlier, when Bell and Chris are fully embedded in the gang, they help plan to rob an out of the way bank that is supposed to have millions in their vaults. The film slowly uses these flashbacks to show how Chris and Erin began to care about each other and decisions they made that explain the hollowed, revenge-driven Bell and her goal to find and kill Silas.

At first, I didn’t entirely engage with the use of the flashbacks as used here; however as the film progressed, I found this process exciting and engaging. We learn of Erin’s discovery that she is pregnant. We see her attempting to have a relationship with her angry, rebellious fifteen-year-old daughter Shelby (Jade Pettyjohn) who lives with her stepfather.

In her search for Silas, she meets up with Toby (James Jordan), one of the former members of Silas’s gang. Toby has just been released from prison because he’s soon to die from cancer. Attempting to get information from Toby, Bell manually stimulates him to orgasm to get a name and location of another member of Silas’s gang.

Her search has her engaging with Petra (Tatiana Maslany) a former rich girl who falls into Silas’ spell. She bursts into the residence of a wealthy criminal attorney name DiFranco (Bradley Whitford) whom she suspects of laundering money for Silas.

The depraved intensity of Bell to complete her revenge on Silas after years of pain were etched on her face throughout the film. However, I felt the zenith of the superb acting in this film came at the last meeting of Erin and Shelby.

As Bell does her best to tell her daughter, who she barely knows, that she loves her, Shelby parries Bell’s attempts until a moment of realization that her mom is doing her best and does care. Shelby’s facial expressions and subtle movement towards the opening, were profoundly sublime as were Bells. Amazing scene.

Kidman was beyond profoundly amazing. Her ability to show this level of gut-driven intensity for revenge is unparalleled. In this one film we see Kidman as a young vulnerable police woman and as a singularly focused emotionally debt driven hollowed out detective. Stan was terrific as her undercover partner who would do anything for his partner. Pettyjohn was dynamite in this role. I loved her rebellious nature, yet in the last conversation with her mom, watch her subtle movement from disdain to respect and feeling compassion towards her mother. It is one of the most elegant pieces of acting I’ve seen in a long time. Kebbell was reliable as the semi-cult leader. The challenge he created for one of the gang with the pistol was telling of his exercising power over the group. Maslany was excellent as the once rich girl who has lost her way and feels stuck with her role in life. Whitford is perfect as the ego-driven lawyer that has lost his way. Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi wrote a compelling screenplay. Karyn Kusama got extraordinary performances from her cast and crew to create a fascinating story.

Overall: This is not a film of hope, but a movie about living with choices made and doing your best to the right the wrongs.

The Upside

First Hit: Both funny and pointed, the relationship between Dell (Kevin Hart) and Phillip (Bryan Cranston) highlights taking responsibility for where they find themselves and opening up to something new.

Kevin Hart can often overwhelm a film with a frenetic energy that can push the meaning of the film aside. However, director Neil Burger was able to reign in Kevin’s tendencies with a clear vision and focused script.

Here as Dell, newly released from prison, we are introduced to him attempting to get signatures on a form that proves he’s trying to seek employment. Dell makes it clear the jobs that the computer system spits out for him are not fitting while seemingly he seems to forget he’s a felon and if Dell doesn’t seek to prove he’s job hunting, he’ll end up back in jail.

Thinking that he’s applying for a position as a janitor in an extremely high-end apartment building in New York City, he ends up in a room with other hopeful people who are highly trained to be a full-time on-site caretaker of Phillip, a wealthy quadriplegic man.

Yvonne (Nicole Kidman) is Phillip’s executive taking care of all Phillip’s affairs, schedules, and hiring. As qualified people are interviewed, Dell gets impatient and barges in an interview, asking Phillip to sign a form. There is humor in the asking a person with quadriplegia to sign the papers, and as the exchange goes on, the hook is that Phillip senses or feels a challenge with Dell and someone he can trust not to try to resuscitate him if he starts to have trouble breathing. Phillip gives the impression he’s looking for a way out of his life.

Carrying his deep sorrow for his wife who passed because of cancer he blames himself for the choice he made to go paragliding in a storm. His accident caused him to lose function of his arms and legs. The guilt of this accident took away his ability for him to be available to his wife as she went to the stages of dying. Phillip carrying this pain is the burden he lugs through the film.

Dell, on the other hand, wants to be a father to his young boy Anthony (Jahi Di’Allo Winston) who he's rarely seen because of his time in prison. His son’s mother, Latrice (Aja Naomi King), is angry at Dell for not providing and not being there for his son. When Dell met his father in prison, and his father said “welcome home” he realized he had to change his ways, that is his burden through the film.

This story is about these two men, together, learning about how to live and grow from their mistakes while learning about how to unburden themselves from their past decisions.

There were visible signs throughout the film about how Phillip would find love again, and that was disappointing. However, there were amazing and funny moments as they discover what they have in common.

At times, I think the film dragged a bit. However, I don’t know what pieces I’d change.

Hart was elegantly constrained in this role which allowed a fullness of character. His interactions with Latrice were well done. Cranston was brilliant as the quadriplegic multi-millionaire. His ability to carry a level of remorse deeply hidden, and allow its uncovering was terrific. Kidman in a minor role was beautiful. She brought just the right amount of integrity and deep longing. Winston was great as the son who wanted his father to be there for him and was rejected numerous times. King was fantastic as a woman who loved Dell but was waiting for him to show up. Jon Hartmere wrote a sharp and well thought out screenplay. Neil Burger had a strong vision for what he wanted to see, and he was able to achieve a developed heartwarming film.

Overall: This was a very entertaining, funny, thoughtful and enjoyable film.

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.