A Rainy Day in New York

Spoiler-free!

Timothée Chalamet plays the Woody Allen archetype and Elle Fanning plays the most annoyingly hyper and ditzy girl imaginable in this laid-back amble through NYC—and they do pretty good job at it. 

It's kinda like if an AI copied Woody Allen. And that's kinda part of the charm.

They go to New York from their upstate college; Elle for business (she landed an interview with a semi-popular artsy filmmaker) and Timothée for pleasure (he loves New York, naturally). They part ways, planning to meet up later. Typical Woody Allen hijinks ensue. Quirky, ponderous monologues are made. The two characters meander from place to place, finding and losing other odd characters played by other famous actors as they get into and out of niche situations. Liev Schreiber, Jude Law, Selena Gomez, Diego Luna, Cherry Jones... It rains. Then an ending place is reached and the credits roll.

It's par for the course on Woody Allen movies. If you always like his style, your mind is made up. If you always dislike his style, likewise. I'm in the middle somewhere. Watching this thing breeze by, it felt meandering and pointless, though not unpleasant. The cast was nice. Even Elle being annoying was intentional and had amusingness in it. Timothée was a little more relaxed into his role than he sometimes is. (It's not a try-hard acting part.) He comes across a little pretentious at first then warms as we follow him through the day. I was lukewarm on it overall. But then the ending shone a different light on preceding events.

This movie is all about the journey, but my taste in entertainment relies (perhaps too much) on destination.

I guess that's the thing about Woody Allen. You know to expect the meandering, the monologues, the old music. What you don't know is whether the plot is going to work for you or not. With a plot as meandering and distracted as this one felt, it seemed capable of going anywhere—until it got to where it was always going. And I have to say, I liked the destination. I liked it so much that my lukewarm feelings have turned into something more substantial. Something more distinctly positive. Something I wouldn't mind wandering through again someday.

I think that's all this minor jaunt was intended to be; I won't bother it for anything more.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

Major Spoilers.

In the first non-Episode Star Wars film, we jump back in time to just before the legendary events of Episode 4, where Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones) an every-girl with a tragic childhood and a cold attitude shaped by it becomes a key piece in the Rebellion's increasingly desperate attempts to fight back against the evil Empire.

Directed by Godzilla's Gareth Edwards

Testing the waters outside of the lines that have been in place for so long, there's bound to be a misstep or two. Rogue One hits all the checkpoints of a successful, entertaining film, but going deeper, it gets more complicated. There are some undeniably great aspects, and some arguably bad ones, and it's all mixed together.

As I see it, the foundation of the movie's main problems is this: it's an emotional and personal story, but is told too much like it's an action blockbuster. For comparison, that was the appropriate way to tell The Force Awakens. Even though it had many important, personal aspects to it, it was, at heart, a space epic, and was told as such. Rogue One is at heart an intimate story; a character journey. On a larger scale we already know what will happen; what we need to see is Jyn, her emotional journey and the things that she cares for.

...the people she cares for.

And when the film does focus small, it's exactly what it should be, inherently darker, but never less than the Star Wars level of engaging. But it doesn't always do that, getting distracted, giving in to the temptation to be big, and epic, and then using the characters only to drive the plot. Then useless things start to fill the run time. Like cameos and winking references. Some of them fun additions, but narratively they gunked up the works. Even Darth Vader, who I enjoyed seeing again in spite of apprehensions. CGI Leia and Tarkin could have been cut completely, and not only because the effects (impressive as they were) were distracting. Even the excellent battle scenes could've been cut back, when not relating directly to the individual characters.

And unfortunately, when the film forgets about its heroine, she doesn't come across well. When we don't get to focus on understanding her, she comes across as one-dimensional; just a tough girl in a bad mood. I loved the brief glimpses we got of her vulnerabilities -- her nightmares of being abandoned, her cynical resistance to feel anything, or the scene where her father dies. But those things weren't developed to complete her arc. The framework was all there, especially in her fear on abandonment, but it wasn't explored and filled in enough for us to feel the full impact when her friends never abandon her. To show her issues resolve.

Forget the action; I want to see some relationships growing.

I'm being hard on character with this movie because all the characters die. It would have been different if they had lived. Even without a sequel, we would know that they continue to grow and change. At the very least Jyn's death needed to be the final piece of closure for her arc. In retrospect I can see that her journey was completed technically, if you fill in some gaps with assumption, but it felt unresolved at the time. I should be able to go back a second time and experience everything properly, but that doesn't mean it's not a flaw.

Normally, I'll guard myself from emotion in films, but I expected the deaths going in, and was constantly preparing myself to embrace the sadness; ready to be moved. I wanted this film to break my heart but, busy and distracted, it didn't linger in the sadness long enough to fully affect me. Every time I'd start to tear up the scene changed to something not sad. That being said, the sadness that was there didn't feel manipulative, but natural, and easy to fall into. It is a sad movie, and I can't fault it for not going as far as I was willing to go.

It is much sadder now, thinking about it with my own filter in my head.

And I don't want to fault it either. There a quite a few details about the way this film was done that I wish had been different, but at its core it got everything right. You can see a good story there. A story that maybe wasn't told as clearly as it could have been, but was told nonetheless, with dedication, a lot of heart, and a great sense of darkness and gritty beauty. My biggest question going into the movie was "will the story be truly worth telling?" and I felt that the answer and my opinion of the film would coincide. Well I was right, and the answer is undoubtedly yes.

I knew it going in and I was happy with my choice coming out: Cassian (Diego Luna) was my favorite. I definitely think he could have used more development, like almost all the characters, but my initial impression was a pleasant surprise at how developed he was... fairly quickly followed by a wish for even more. He was very compelling to me; a worn soldier who follows his orders, knowing that the end will justify the means. And I could have watched a full two hours of just him and Jyn having heated arguments. Their relationship was built up really well for a while before speeding along to the conclusion, and had a lot of great potential; if I could reorganize the film's focus, I'd put the spotlight directly on them.

I love that he has to suppress emotion in order to work for the rebellion, and Jyn does the same to keep herself out of it. 

Nothing but love for K-2SO -- he was the best comic relief (basically the only comic relief) as a droid with no verbal filter. Nothing but an endless supply of excellently unique humor, delivered in the perfect way that only Alan Tudyk can supply. (He also performed motion-capture for the character on set.) But of course, that led to an equally great amount of heart from him as well... and a surprising amount of badassery. His death scene was the best and maybe the most affecting of them all.

The other three rebels of the group (pilot Bhodi (Riz Ahmed), blind guy Chirrut (Donnie Yen) and blind guy's friend Baze (Wen Jiang)) sadly didn't have time to make a huge impression before the end, but I was attached enough to them to feel significance at their deaths. They all were good for the screen time they received, and I'm sure the future will see me more familiar with and attached to them. Mads Mikkelsen as Jyn's father Galen is very cool, and his character expertly done. No complaints at all -- he got everything done with limited time and drama and style to spare. Forest Whitaker was good too, but in the end, unimportant.

This scene was so beautiful...

The film's villain Krennic was overshadowed by the bigger, arguably unnecessary villains above him, which was too bad, because Ben Mendelsohn made him a great, stylish, and easy to hate villain, and he could have owned the screen alone. I really wanted the climax to be more just him and Jyn in an epic personal struggle instead of the whole epic-in-scale one we got instead. That moment on the tower lasted a mere fraction of the time it could have.

I get the feeling that Rogue One was a little... disconnected. Or misinformed. I don't think it understood what we wanted out of a Star Wars spinoff film. All the things I didn't care for seemed like the stuff they thought was fan service, and where I wanted to go deeper was often casually glazed over or cut short. Maybe that's only me though. I know they wanted to cater to the broadest audience possible here, and to do that the movie had to find a balance between its inherit personal nature and a widely appealing blockbuster one. The balance is awkward, but it may be the most ideal, considering the circumstances.

Not a perfect film... but a great story.

I don't mean to cut this movie any slack where it doesn't deserve it, but, in the end, my view of it can't help but be overwhelmingly positive -- in spite of my complaining and wishing for more out of the characters. I wouldn't wish for more if I hadn't loved them, after all. A little misguided perhaps, but Rogue One's Star Wars story is a story worth telling, and a brave and beautiful plunge into the ever-expanding reaches of a galaxy far, far away.

Elysium

This review is Spoiler-free.

Elysium is Greek mythology's name for heaven, and in the orbit of Earth in the not-too-distant-future, the populated satellite called the same is aptly named. It is beautiful lush and rich, rotating to give artificial gravity and filled with every luxury. Only the wealthy and the important live there, the rest of the human race still live on Earth were conditions are grim. Los Angeles is little more than a slum, and the dismally poor and sick residents are so desperate to go to Elysium to receive healing that they regularly risk death trying to sneak shuttles through Elysium's well-guarded air space.

Awesomely designed and beautifully rendered. I'd definitely live there.

From this world, comes Max. As long as he's been on Earth, Elysium has been in the sky, and like everyone else, he dreams of going there. But for now he just tries to keep out of trouble, something he's unreasonably not good at for a reformed car thief. A work accident leaves him more desperate than ever to get to Elysium, so in exchange for one of those risky tickets, he agrees to help his old partner in crime with a job.

Matt Damon plays this desperate everyman, and hero of the whole show, but doesn't succeed in making a particularly compelling character out of Max. His arc was the tried and true formula of reluctant hero, so it wasn't bad, but neither did he stand out from the pack with it, or divert from the predictability attached to it. Still he was likable and easy to root for, and Damon gave it plenty of gusto.

Nice suit, nice haircut, nice tattoos. Still not as cool as Jason Bourne.

He is easily overshadowed by the villain though. And no, not Jodie Foster's character -- her evil overlady's character arc matched the typical quality of the hero, and was overshadowed too, by the real main villain. Kruger. Where there is Neill Blomkamp (this movie's writer and director), there is Sharlto Copley, and where Sharlto Copley goes, awesomeness follows in his wake. Here he is crazy and psychopathic assassin Kruger who does the dirty work to keep Elysium clean and clear of poor ruffians and vagabonds. Kruger isn't a character arc kind of guy, he's more the "fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants-have-fun-and-don't-forget-to-laugh-manically" type, and it's all kinds of great, resulting in the film's best and most defining moments and scenes. He may be the villain, but he's also the hero -- saving the film from an melodramatic and unmemorable demise by pulling it out of that safe little bubble it had no business being in as an R-rated sci-fi movie. Without him there still would have been plenty of language to earn the rating, but he makes it feel worthy of the R.

Kruger knows how to cut loose. And blow things up. Literally, and figuratively -- but mostly literally.

The inside of that bubble, where the movie spends most it's time is not all bad of course, but it is a pretty mixed bag-- er, bubble. The message and politics was the low point. It was very heavy-handed and forced, resulting in several obvious holes, and very little sense. For just one example: are we really expected to believe that all the rich people are so evil/ignorant/self-absorbed that they couldn't even donate a few magical-healing machines to Earth? Why are there no good, kind rich people? A sadly large number of plot points are similarly contrived or looked over. Fortunately, the cool and entertaining parts of the film distract from the problematic bits well enough to tip the balance in its favor.

On the action and purely entertaining side of things, there were no problems. The gimmicky appeal of the performance enhancing exo-skeleton suit Max wears, plus other futuristic weaponry gadgets and slick, innovative filming style of the brutal fight scenes all kept things interesting and exciting. Things were particularly exciting and exceptionally memorable, as you may imagine, when Kruger was around. I cannot stress enough how much he helped give the action that gritty, disturbing, unpredictability it needed. The action was never bad, and always the best part of the movie, but when Kruger was involved, it was downright great.

Max reloads the gun as fast as he can, but Kruger still walks toward him, because you know what? Hurrying isn't as cool, and being cool is the most important thing.

At the heart of this piece there's not much more that what you would expect to find inside that previously mentioned safety bubble; stale air. The failed attempt of making an emotional connection with the audience never detracted from the movie, so for me it's totally neutral. I went into this film wanting to see a hardcore futuristic shoot-'em-up showdown between Matt Damon and Sharlto Copley, and since that's exactly what I got, I never felt the loss of the half-hearted heart.

Neill Blomkamp's second feature film may be a letdown in comparison to his astonishing first, District 9, but judged as it should be, for its ability to entertain as a sci-fi action movie, there's more to be admired and entertained by than admonished and bored by -- with it's totally original if occasionally contrived plot, thrilling action, cool hero and even cooler villain. Elysium is a plenty exciting and fun action-filled sci-fi adventure, even without quite reaching its heavenly goal.