2016 Movie Reviews: August

Unscripted Movie Reviews

Here we go! By popular request, I'm back on the blog and reviewing movies! My movie-watching was a bit slow to start the year - I was in PhD school after all - but picked up once I got home and had free time and free movies once again.

Previous 2016 Reviews:

January & February,  March & April,  May,  June,  July

Unscripted Ratings:

4/4 - Buy a ticket, poster, & DVD.

3.5/4 - Buy a ticket.

3/4 - Buy a matinee ticket.

2/4 - Wait to stream/rent it.

1/4 - Consider as last resort.

0/4 - Avoid at all costs.

With that, here's Part 6 of the 2016 Movie Review catch-up - enjoy!!

Aug 5

Suicide Squad: A secret government agency forces imprisoned supervillains (Will Smith, Margot Robbie) to execute dangerous black ops missions. Also starring Jared Leto as The Joker.

Here we go again. Warner Bros./D.C. keeps trying to find superhero success besides Batman, and keeps miserably failing. Even worse than this year's earlier Batman v. Superman, Suicide Squad is an erratic, thin, perplexingly-bad mess. The story is awful, with laughably obvious, gaping plot-holes and spasmodic, slipshod turns that are totally unnatural and only happen because the filmmakers wanted them to, and not because they made any sense within the narrative. Similarly, characterization is either confoundingly nonexistent or absurdly over-the-top. Yes, Robbie is great as fan-favorite character Harley Quinn, and the soundtrack is pretty great too, but neither of these save Suicide Squad from being one of the absolutely worst films of the year. The Final Word: 0/4 - Avoid at all costs.

Aug 12

Anthropoid: The true story of a WWII mission to assassinate SS-General Reinhard Heydrich, the main architect behind the Final Solution and the Reich's third in command after Hitler and Himmler. Starring Cillian Murphy and Jamie Dornan.

Waiting for just the right moment to make a move, hoping against hope to not be discovered in the meantime. Such is the suspense present in Anthropoid, which pays off in an intense third act, but which may try the patience of audiences until then. If the romantic subplot feels forced, it may be due to inattentive writing or direction, but I also sensed that the characters themselves, in a desperate search for belonging in their invaded homeland and for comfort facing almost-certain death, may well have embraced any love they could find, no matter how stilted. Regardless, relationships take a backseat to an interesting, albeit largely sedate, story with a breathless finale. The Final Word: 2/4 - Wait to stream/rent it.

Florence Foster Jenkins: A New York heiress (Meryl Streep) dreams of becoming an opera singer, despite having a terrible singing voice.

Streep is a phenomenal actress, no doubt, and in Florence Foster Jenkins she again is exceptional in creating a unique and memorable character. However, this performance is situated in a film in which not much happens, and we come close to a deeper exploration of truth, entitlement, and the fears and hopes of passion, but never quite get there. I found myself impatiently waiting for the film to take a stand on Florence and her fantasies. Should she be brought back to reality from her reveries, or should we adopt her childlike approach to people and the world? This is never satisfactorily addressed. Ultimately, the film itself is a relative mirror of its titular character; it's not very good, but may be indulged for the sake of the leading lady whom we love. The Final Word: 2/4 - Wait to stream/rent it.

Operation Chromite: A squad of soldiers (Jung-jae Lee) fight in the Korean War's crucial Battle of Incheon. Also starring Liam Neeson and Beom-su Lee.

A little-known foreign-language film, Operation Chromite is actually pretty interesting and a good deal of fun. We follow South Korean troops on a near-impossible mission to infiltrate a North Korean command center and safely guide U.N. forces through a maze of naval mines. As General Douglas MacArthur, Neeson delivers a relatively wooden performance, but the Korean cast provides exceptional characterization in action and drama, and even some humor. In many ways it is a standard war film, but it meets and often exceeds those accompanying expectations. The Final Word: 3/4 - Buy a matinee ticket.

Pete's Dragon: The adventures of an orphaned boy named Pete and his best friend Elliott, who just so happens to be a dragon.

It is not the spectacle that this year's earlier The Jungle Book was, but Pete's Dragon is an equally effective live-action Disney adaptation, and actually proves to be a more intimate tale, despite being about a giant, furry reptile. Gentle and charming, the film can lean on sentiment a bit too much, but its simplicity dives deep and proves to be supremely satisfying. As the credits rolled, I was reminded of other classic misunderstood-monster family films, like E.T. and The Iron Giant, among others. With similarly timeless sensibilities, Pete's Dragon is a movie to be enjoyed by kids and adults. The Final Word: 3/4 - Buy a matinee ticket.

Sausage Party: A misplaced sausage (Seth Rogen) and his savory friends embark on an existential adventure through the aisles of a massive supermarket in the crudest cartoon you've ever seen.

Vulgarity and insult can prove useful devices in pursuit of insightful humor, but when utilized as the joke themselves they are the laziest and lowest form of comedy. Such are the apparent amusements of Sausage Party, which pretends to offer sociocultural critiques, but really isn't anything more than its tiresome profanities and racial and religious put-downs. The central premise is auspiciously inventive, but the filmmakers harvested too early from that creative seed, plucking only the lowest-hanging, bitter fruit, rather than growing the idea into something that could have kept the rude and lewd gags but contributed to a final product that made a viewing worth it. And no, I didn't need a shockingly graphic food-product orgy scene. The Final Word: 1/4 - Consider as a last resort.

Aug 19

Ben-Hur: Judah Ben-Hur (Jack Huston), a prince falsely accused of treason, returns to his homeland after years at sea to seek revenge, but finds redemption.

Critics were not fans of Ben-Hur; on the review-aggregator website RottenTomatoes, where the film has a mere 25%, commentators described the film as "amateurish," "soulless," and my personal favorite, a "digitalized eyesore hobbled in every department by staggering incompetence." I definitely did not think Ben-Hur was quite that bad. True, it was not great, far from it with overly-CGI action and some shallow writing and acting, but overall Ben-Hur was still a fun couple hours, especially having never seen the original classic film. The Final Word: 2/4 - Wait to stream/rent it.

Hell or High Water: To save their family's ranch in West Texas, a divorced father (Chris Pine) and his ex-con brother (Ben Foster) begin robbing banks as Texas Rangers (Jeff Bridges) pursue them.

As a present-day Western film, Hell or High Water has all the sensibilities of that classic and nowadays-undervalued genre but with contemporary modernizations that come together to make this movie the very best I've seen this year. Pine, Foster, and Bridges bring the film's tense, slow (but never boring) burn to a crackling smolder with flawless delivery of impeccably-written dialogue before the narrative erupts in a finale that eschews mindless action for unparalleled American drama. The film is perfectly paced, to the credit of director David Mackenzie (Starred Up), speeding through ageless landscapes and capturing both the defiantly maverick culture of poverty-stricken but relentlessly rugged West Texas and themes of family, masculinity, loyalty, and redemption. Hell or High Water provides a singular, gritty satisfaction with some of the most exemplary character work and engaging, original storytelling you can find in cinema. The Final Word: 4/4 - Buy a ticket, poster, & DVD.

War Dogs: The true story of two young men (Jonah Hill, Miles Teller), who won a $300 million contract from the Pentagon to arm America's allies in Afghanistan.

The real-life premise of War Dogs is undoubtedly interesting and presents a timely consideration of exactly how America enacts its role in the world. What is unfortunate about the film is that it misses opportunities to really shock us with the brutality of the consequences of the protagonists or to critically challenge the underlying philosophy in the government's actions. On the fortunate side, the unique plot is consistently engaging throughout and Hill and Teller - especially Hill - are very effective in their roles, eliciting a surprising amount of sympathy for characters who should be very much unlikable. The Final Word: 3/4 - Buy a matinee ticket.

Aug 26

Don't Breathe: A trio of thieves break into the house of a blind man (Stephen Lang) who is more threatening than he seems.

One of the best thrillers in recent years, Don't Breathe thrives with its relatively simple premise, craftily introducing twists and turns that shock and surprise, but never divert from the intimate narrative being told. From the very start of the doomed break-in, the tone is inescapably taut, only growing in claustrophobia and desperation as it stretches on, with scares that never fade in their ability to induce a gasp or scream, speaking to the prowess of rising horror director Fede Alvarez (Evil Dead). There are a couple plot holes that can be distracting, and one last epilogue inclusion that makes little sense, but overall Don't Breathe is an unforgettably effective and suspenseful feature. The Final Word: 3.5/4 - Buy a ticket.

Southside With You: Long before becoming the 44th President of the United States, a young Barack Obama (Parker Sawyers) takes the future First Lady Michelle Obama (Tika Sumpter) on a first-date across Chicago's South Side in 1989.

By far the most impressive quality of Southside With You is the spot-on performances of its leads, accomplishing much in their impressive portrayals of such persons so well known around the world as the Obamas. Sawyers is charming as a young Barack, balancing dual desires to make a good impression and to effect real change. Sumpter is equally winsome as Michelle, determined to find success against her life's obstacles, in pursuit of which Barack seems a distraction, but in whom she also encounters - and sometimes challenges - a confident and earnest authenticity. The budding romance of a not-yet-President and First Lady is unique storytelling fodder, if a bit heavy on overly-concentrated dialogue. The Final Word: 2/4 - Wait to stream/rent it.