Birds of Prey

First Hit: This movie was absolutely horrible and a waste of time and money.

The original title of this film is “Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn.” The title alone is a warning enough, and when you read it, it is all you’ll need to know about this story. I do not know what the screenwriter or director was thinking, but it wasn’t about making a movie that had conscious cognizant coherence.

From the get-go, this film is a mess. Using narrative and disjointed clips of film to attempt to put the story in place and time was useless here because there really is no place or time.

I thought “Suicide Squad” was a quirky fun movie. It is where we meet Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) for the first time. She was odd, “out there,” and on the edge of crazy. This film Birds of Prey is supposed to give us the backstory of Ms. Quinn. It is also a way to introduce other characters, the “Birds of Prey,” consisting of Renee Montoya (Rosie Perez), “The Huntress,” aka Helena Bertinelli (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), and “Black Canary,” aka Dinah Lance (Jurnee Smollett-Bell).

There’s little character development, Instead, narration and snippets of past stories are used to fill in the backstory of these characters.

This group of women come together because of and over the improbability of a young pickpocketing girl, Cassandra Cain (Ella Jay Basco), swallowing a large, I mean colossally large, diamond stolen from a thieving, conniving, and self-named lord of Gotham, Roman Sionis (Ewan McGregor).

Lots of fighting ensues, and we always know who wins. The fighting scenes are not well-choreographed and felt staged. The logic stream of the story was virtually non-existent. It seems as though the director Cathy Yan threw together a bunch of film scraps she shot with this cast doing stuff and called it a day.

Robbie is an excellent actress. She’ has proven her abilities in many films. Therefore, I’m surprised she co-produced and acted in this hot mess. Despite her talents, this was not good work. Perez, who has been missed in recent years, did what she could with this limiting role. Winstead was the best of the lot. Her quiet demeanor and her story of how she came up with “The Huntress” when everyone else like called her “Crossbow” was amusing. Smollett-Bell tried to make her character mean something but, again, the script and direction let her down. McGregor was okay as the foil for the Birds of Prey. Christina Hodson created a disjointed and lackluster screenplay with little substance. Yan has no business directing a film with this film as proof.

Overall: This movie was a total waste of time.

The Rhythm Section

First Hit: This is Blake Lively’s (as Stephanie Patrick) movie from beginning to end.

Blake Lively can act, and here we see how good she can be.

The story opens by letting us know that Patrick is a lost soul. She is slowly destroying herself by using heroin and supporting this habit through prostitution. We learn that Stephanie has turned to this life of self-destruction because she lost her entire family in a suspicious plane crash three years earlier. She was supposed to be on that plane.

A reporter named Keith Proctor (Raza Jaffrey) comes to the brothel and buys time with Stephanie so that he can speak with her about what he’s working on. Proctor is investigating who are the people who planted the bomb on the plane that killed her parents. Patrick, unsure of Procter’s real intention, dashes out of the room and gets the house bouncer to physically throw Proctor out. She doesn’t want to be reminded of her pain.

However, Proctor left his business card, and as Patrick gets ready to hit up with another dose of smack, she decides to bolt out of the brothel ending up at Proctor’s London apartment. The verbal sparring here is wonderfully done because Proctor holds his ground of just wanting to get more information and to give Patrick information about what really happened to the plane. Patrick, on the other hand, is utterly scared about having to face her own demons and re-live the emotional loss of her family.

Proctor has a room where there is a photo of each of the plane crash victims along with piles of folders containing information and evidence about what really happened on that plane. It includes information about who ordered the bombing, who made the bomb, and who set it off.

Getting the name of the person who built the bomb, Raza (Tawfeek Barhom), Patrick sets out to find him and get payback. But as she confronts Rasa face to face, in a moment of panic she cannot pull the trigger. However, because he’s now been discovered, Raza finds and takes it out on Proctor.

With Proctor no longer being able to help, Patrick uses one more bit of information from the files she took from Proctor’s apartment, a location on a map. Traveling to this location in a remote norther area of Scotland, she finds Iain Boyd “B” (Jude Law), a former MI6 agent.

She convinces B that she is going to kill the bomb maker and all the people associated with the bombing of the plane and asks him to train her. Skeptical of Stephanie’s abilities, B relents and teaches her how to shoot, fight, and keep fit while also giving her information on where she might find Raza and the unknown mastermind.

The thing that is most compelling in this story is how slowly we see Patrick’s incremental change from strung-out addict (pale, thin, haunting eyes, and bruised up) to someone who is not a fighting machine but a healthier person. We see her dive to right the wrong to her family and assuage her underlying guilt for not being on the plane with them.

Like an everyday person, Patrick never overwhelms anyone when she’s fighting, she’s authentically fighting for her life. She’s appropriately scared and clearly driven. And this is what makes this story engaging as Stephanie makes her way to find and resolve her family’s death.

All the scenes are well shot from the car chase scene to her training with B to the bus explosion. However, it is the time with Marc Serra (Sterling K. Brown), especially their last scene, where we see that Stephanie Patrick has learned what she needs to learn about herself and her abilities. She has freed herself from her past.

Lively is absolutely mesmerizing as this character. It is the grittiest role I’ve seen her in, and she nails it. Law is terrific as the elusive former MI6 Agent put to pasture. His direct approach to helping Patrick was excellent. Brown was engagingly cagey and incredible as the former CIA agent who sells information to bad people. Jaffrey was wonderful as the news reporter wanting to get to the truth. Mark Burnell wrote a powerful and pointedly direct script. Reed Morano got the best out of the actors while engagingly directing scenes keeping the audience fully engaged the entire time.

Overall: I really liked the way this story came together and the acting, all around, was superb.

Clemency

First Hit: The slow eruption of sorrow by Alfre Woodard as Warden Bernadine Williams is formidable.

Make no mistake, this is Woodard’s film from beginning to end. As the warden of a prison that executes the individuals on death row, she faces up to her harrowing job with a commitment, strength, and affected vulnerability.

The film begins with Warden Williams presiding over an execution. The medical orderly botches needle insertion attempts. The camera focuses on Williams’ face almost the whole time, and by reading the barely visible changes in expression, we know she’s a percolating pot of unexpressed feelings.

Williams is married to Jonathan (Wendell Pierce), who is a high school teacher. We only find out about his work late in the film, but the scene where he’s reading to his students provides a good indication of the depth and quality of the man he is.

There are moments during the fill that explore their relationship at home, and what we see is a man doing his best to reach out to his wife, and she is barely able to respond.

Bernadine is loyal to her job. She knows it is essential, but her own awareness that the job is eating her alive is minimal. When she’s engaging prisoners, especially Anthony Woods (Aldis Hodge), she is both competent and caring.

The focus of this story is between the time of the early botched execution and the execution of Woods. The story uses Major Logan Cartwright’s (LaMonica Garrett) difficulty after the botched execution to portray the struggle of doing one’s job when that job is to push the buttons of death. There is a side story of  Chaplain Kendricks (Michael O’Neill), who is the assigned Chaplain there to assist the doomed prisoners. There is the anti-execution attorney Marty Lumetta (Richard Schiff) pleading to stay Woods's execution because evidence shows he probably wasn’t the killer and because of the previously botched execution. Then there is Woods's own story and the effect of discovering he has a son just before his day of execution.

All of these stories are etched in Williams’ face as she painfully goes through her duties of Warden.

The scene with Woods in his cell, trying to hurt himself, is painful to watch. I had to turn away for part of it.  When Woods meets up with the mother of his son, her story of why she did what she did was compelling. Deputy Warden Thomas Morgan’s (Richard Gunn) support of Williams is shown in several scenes. The bar parking lot scene in which he asks for keys is reflective of his caring, help, and support.

The film, because the subject is dark, is mostly shot in darker tones. The Williams’ home is not infused with light, the prison and prison walls are realistically portrayed in generic faded government colors. The yellow lines bordering each hallway in prison, guiding prisoners where they can walk, is poignantly shown.

However, the film is very slow-paced, and at times, I did want it to jump forward, but I also understand why it was done this way.

Woodard gives a career-defining performance. The subtle movements in her expressions, eyes, and body movement tell a compelling story, and it surely deserved an award nomination. Garrett was terrific as this hulking strong guard that had to succumb to his inner voice about participating in another execution. Pierce was extraordinary in his role as Bernadine’s husband. Schiff was terrific as the prisoner rights attorney. O’Neill was perfect as the Chaplain. Hodge was remarkable and fantastic as the prisoner wrongly accused of murder facing death by execution. Gunn was excellent as a caring Deputy Warden. Chinonye Chukwu wrote and directed this film with both heart and intention. When the state takes a life, it affects everyone involved, including our society.

Overall: This was a study in outstanding acting by Woodard.

The Gentlemen

First Hit: A few scenes were to fun watch, but as a film, it was poorly constructed.

I’ve never seen a Guy Ritchie film that I thought was constructed with thoughtfulness and skill. He either attempts to cover too much ground or is more inclined to use pop and dazzle to engage the audience.

In this film, he has to use narration throughout to create, set up, and deliver the story. He hides his inability to write a good screenplay by making the narration of his story part of the storyline his characters say to each other.

Specifically, watch most of the scenes between a dirt-digger detective and reporter Fletcher (Hugh Grant and Ray (Charlie Hunnam). Ray is the right-hand man and consigliere for Mickey Pearson (Matthew McConaughey), the weed lord of England. Because Fletcher is attempting to blackmail Mickey and Ray, he explains the whole story to the theater’s audience by reading the screenplay with Ray.

This is the main issue with this film. Having to rely on this narration to provide a lot of the movie’s context is troubling. However, I will say the way it is done here is better than having an unknown voice over-explanation.

The story as I saw it, was that Mickey wants to sell his vast marijuana growing and distribution empire to Matthew (Jeremy Strong). The reason for selling was unclear and unconvincing. Matthew is a wealthy eccentric Englishman who is intrigued with the possibility of buying this empire for $400M. However, it is a lot of money, and to drive the price down, Matthew engages “Dry Eye” (Henry Golding and a term used for Asians). Dry Eye makes an offer that Mickey scoffs at, but because the offer to sell to Matthew was supposed to be secret, Mickey is now on guard.

Then the story adds complexity because we learn that Matthew and Dry Eye are working some sort of side deal to assist each other in reducing the price, but each plans to screw the other as well.

Adding to this is Fletcher, who, through his detective work, documents all the goings-on between all the parties, which led to the script he reads from. His hopes are to sell the screenplay to Mickey and Ray for $20M so that Mickey and Ray will know all the subversive planning that is going on to drive the price down.

The most fun part of the film is when we have scenes with Coach (Colin Farrell). His group of boys is caught raising havoc in one of Mickey’s underground farms, so he owes Mickey and Ray. The payback to Ray and Mickey are amusing and fun to watch.

Confused? One could be, but this convoluted story is kept on track by the narration scenes. This saves the film from being a total disaster and it also makes it a poorly constructed film.

Anyway, there are lots of side plots and stories in this movie, including Mickey’s wife, Rosalind Pearson (Michelle Dockery). She’s supposed to be the most magnificent woman in the world, but it is only in the eyes of the beholder. There is the newspaper owner who hired Fletcher. There is Lord George (Tom Wu), head dragon, heroin distributor who crosses Mickey.

The movie has lots of twists that are used for creating interest and complexity, and in some cases, it works, but mostly it doesn’t.

McConaughey's role in this makes me wonder. At times he selects fantastic parts like in film Dallas Buyer’s Club and other times, he chooses roles like this one. He does it well enough, but it’s really a role of false, blustery, and cool-man behavior. Hunnam is outstanding as Ray, Mickey’s right-hand man. Grant is oddly compelling as a bad guy. I’ve not seen him recently, and seeing him here was fun. Farrell is brilliant as the Coach of a group of guys and honest to his word. Actually, I liked his character and role the best of all. Dockery is okay as Mickey’s wife and auto builder entrepreneur. Strong is mediocre as the wealthy and odd Englishman who wants to buy Mickey’s empire. Golding is formidable as Dry Eye, a youngish Asian who wants to make his mark. Wu was perfect as the wry old heroin distributor. Ritchie wrote and directed this film, and as I’ve indicated, Guy has little to offer in the realm of filmmaking and his background in music videos is where his talent may lay.

Overall:  Although entertaining at times, being so convoluted the required narration means the story and film needs additional work.

Oscar Nominations and My Take

Once again, it is time to celebrate a year of film watching. Here are my choices for the following award nominees, along with thoughts about the selections and non-selections the Academy made.

Actor in a Leading Role – The nominees are: Antonio Banderas, (Pain and Glory); Leonardo DiCaprio, (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood); Adam Driver, (Marriage Story); Joaquin Phoenix, (Joker); and Jonathan Pryce, (The Two Popes).

Who else could be on this list? Adam Sandler (Uncut Gems) gave a fantastic performance as an obsessed gambler. You may not like the character, but it is a dead-on performance of obsession and addiction. Also, Paul Walter Hauser (Richard Jewell) was mesmerizing as a hero, turned villain, and finally exonerated hero. There are scenes where the subtly of his inner pressure to be something other than what he was, boarded on sublime. Lastly, Christian Bale (Ford v Ferrari), as the focused race car driver, mechanical puzzle solver, father, husband, and friend, was fully captured. He was the soul of this story.

Given the nominees, I’d have to say Joaquin Phoenix stood out, although Jonathan Pryce was equally fabulous in a far more subtle role.

Actress in a Leading Role – The nominees are: Cynthia Erivo, (Harriet); Scarlett Johansson, (Marriage Story); Saoirse Ronan, (Little Women); Charlize Theron, (Bombshell); and Renee Zellweger, (Judy).

Who else could be on this list? For my money, Cate Blanchett’s riveting performance as the trapped inside her mind, edgy adventurer, and mother in “Where’d You Go Bernadette” belonged here. I also liked Halldora Geirharosdottir in “Woman at War,” a story about a woman committed to resisting the destruction of her home country, Iceland. Lastly, I thought Awkwafina in “The Farewell” deserves a look as well. Her dance between living with tradition and wanting to change how her family deals with death were excellent.

Given the nominees, it is a difficult choice between Cynthia Erivo in “Harriet” and Renee Zellweger in “Judy.” Both of these women are portraying influential people, one in changing our racist history and the other in the field of entertainment.

Supporting Actress – The nominees are: Kathy Bates, (Richard Jewell); Laura Dern, (Marriage Story); Scarlett Johansson, (Jojo Rabbit); Florence Pugh, (Little Women); and Margot Robbie, (Bombshell).

Who else could be on this list? There are two actresses in Parasite that belong on this list: First is Park So-Dam, who was the conniving daughter that plays art therapist to the son of Park Yeon-Kyo. The swagger and know-it-all confidence So-dam brings to this role is perfect.  Second is Yeon-Kyo, who plays the extremely gullible mother of two children being taught and tutored by the children in the Kim family. Her looks of innocence and lack of thought were spot-on.

Of the nominees, I think Dern’s performance in “Little Women” was stronger than the nominated performance in “Marriage Story,” and therefore, she eliminates herself. I also thought that Pugh in “Midsommar” was at least equal to her performance in “Little Women.” Given the list, Robbie delivered the best of the group with Johansson a close second.

Supporting Actor – The nominees are: Tom Hanks, (A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood); Anthony Hopkins, (The Two Popes); Brad Pitt, (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood); Joe Pesci, (The Irishman); and Al Pacino, (The Irishman).

This is a solid field, and their performances in their films are noteworthy. I would have exchanged Anthony Hopkins with Jamie Foxx in “Just Mercy,” but I can’t argue with the Academy’s list.

Hanks and Pitt give incredible performances, but I do like Pitt’s performance as the stunt double better.

Best Cinematography – The nominees are: Rodrigo Prieto, (The Irishman); Lawrence Sher, (Joker); Jarin Blaschke, (The Lighthouse); Roger Deakins, (1917); and Robert Richardson, (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood).

What is missing in this list is the cinematography in the documentary film “Aqualera.” I was blown away by the power of the pictures in that film, especially of the ocean in all its raging glory.

Of the nominees, it is difficult to choose favorite or best. However, given the list, I’d select Roger Deakins for “1917.”

Best Writing of an Adapted Screenplay – The nominees are: Steven Zaillian, (The Irishman); Taika Waititi, (Jojo Rabbit); Todd Phillips and Scott Silver, (Joker); Destin Daniel Cretton and Andrew Lanham (Just Mercy); Greta Gerwig, (Little Women); and Anthony McCarten, (The Two Popes).

Of this list, I’d have to select Taika Waititi for “Jojo Rabbit.” It presented the most creative and complex questions of any of the nominees. However, I also think that Anthony McCarten did a terrific job with “The Two Popes” because of the thorny issues it brought to bear around tradition and religion and how these two humans dealt with them.

Best Writing of an Original Screenplay – The nominees are: Rian Johnson, (Knives Out); Noah Baumbach (Marriage Story); Sam Mendes and Krysty Wilson-Cairns (1917); Quentin Tarantino (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood); and Bong Joon Ho and Jin Won Han (Parasite).

Quentin Tarantino wrote a wonderfully inventive version of events that transpired in 1969. His use of an aging star and his committed friendship with his stunt double as the basis for slightly altering history was superb. However, I fell in love with Bong Joon Ho and Jin Won Han’s “Parasite.” It is one of the very few films I saw more than one time and would watch it again.

Best Film Editing – The nominees are: “Ford v Ferrari,” “Jojo Rabbit,” “The Irishman,” “Joker,” and “Parasite.”

In this category, I have to select “Ford v Ferrari.” The quick cuts between the pit and race scenes were terrifically executed.

Best International Film: The nominees are: “Corpus Christi,” Poland; “Honeyland,” North Macedonia; “Les Miserables,” France; “Pain and Glory,” Spain; “Parasite,” South Korea.

This is a difficult choice for me because of my choice for the overall Best Picture award is “Parasite.” However, I don’t think the Academy will select this excellent film as Best Picture. Therefore, my first choice here is “Parasite,” closely followed by “Pain and Glory.”

Best Director – The nominees are: Bong Joon Ho, (Parasite); Sam Mendes, (1917); Todd Phillips, (Joker); Martin Scorsese, (The Irishman); Quentin Tarantino, (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood).

All of these directors gave us excellent films. Each movie is different from each other in unique ways. However, there is only one film I fell in love with, and that is “Parasite.” I thought the power of showing the disparity of income, what people are pushed to do to live, and the twist into darkness was truly engaging. Therefore, Bong Joon Ho gets my vote.

However, I think Tarantino will probably get the nod here.

Best Picture – The nominees are: “Ford v Ferrari,” “The Irishman,” “Jojo Rabbit,” “Joker,” “Little Women,” “Marriage Story,” “1917,” Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” and “Parasite.”

I like films that move me, take me on a journey, or challenge me intellectually. Most of the nominees did one or more of these things. However, “Little Women,” despite excellent performances by Saoirse Ronan, Florence Pugh, and Laura Dern, lacked a depth that would make it a best picture candidate. I think “Just Mercy” would have been a strong candidate as would have “Last Black Man in San Francisco.” I also liked “Waves,” “Uncut Gems,” and “Dolemite is My Name.”

Given the nominees, my favorite film and choice would be “Parasite,” and sensing that the academy will give this film the “Best International Film” award, it probably won’t win. Then it comes down to the rank voting procedures here. There will be a large number of votes split among “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” “The Irishmen,” and “1917.” Therefore it’s challenging to know what film will rise above the fray, but of these three, I liked “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” best.