My Day with Film (Friday, 12/2/16)

Friday, 12/2/16


Dear Diary,

I finished watching the extended cut of GHOSTBUSTERS (2016) today. I got more out of the film as a whole than I did before. The humor is still pretty cringey, but otherwise it's not quite the disaster that many think. It's important to form your own opinions about things - movies, art, etc. in particular.

In other news, I found out that there's a 16-second teaser out there for the upcoming reboot of THE MUMMY starring Tom Cruise. The full trailer comes out on Sunday. From what I gather of the brief look so far, it appears similar to what the Brendan Fraser version might look like if it was set in the current time / near future. This is alleged to be part of Universal's shared cinematic universe for its Classic Monsters franchise. DRACULA UNTOLD was apparently the first film in that universe. I've yet to see it myself.

I joined the Cincinnati Film Society today. I'm hoping to meet fellow cinephiles and network with people in the industry going forward.

A friend asked me about Filmstruck, the new online streaming home of Turner Classic Movies and the Criterion Collection. I'm not a subscriber myself just yet. It seems a bit pricey, and the lack of apps presently doesn't help the cause.

Tonight is Smash Cut night at The Woodward in Over-the-Rhine! I've been working for a PR company that's in the middle of a re-branding, and this event is the first to be sponsored exclusively by us. This event has been billed as "a movie-themed comedy game show" hosted by one of the guys from Future Science. I don't really know what to expect, but it should be fun!

Until tomorrow-

BC

"Marauders" Review

When I saw the first trailer for Marauders, I had nearly forgotten that the project existed. Living in Cincinnati, you hear about big stars like Bruce Willis and Law & Order's Christopher Meloni coming to town to shoot a new film. I remember hearing they were around but little about what their movie was. Then a couple of months ago the trailer debuted, showing a taste of the finished product. There were several money shots of the downtown skyline - the kind that firmly established the film as a Cincinnati story. There would be no mistaking this setting for New York or Los Angeles. The rest of the trailer looked like fairly standard bank-heist-movie fare, but I was excited for a full-tilt action picture set in Cincinnati. Marauders turned out to be a day-and-date VOD release; you could find it on streaming services and cable OnDemand the same day I paid to see it in a small, locally-owned movie theater. This theater typically gets all the movies that are made in Cincinnati since it seems to be the preferred space for locals working on these projects. There's something inherently special about sitting among an audience full of folks who either acted as extras, served as a grip or worked catering for the film you're seeing on the big screen. This adds a wholly unique dimension to the moviegoing experience regardless of the quality of the finished product; thus it's inherently set apart from a lot of the other movies you'd normally go out to see.

Having said that, I wish I could've apologized to everyone else I saw Marauders with. It is so morose, so convoluted and so tragically awful that surely the talents of every single person involved - both in front of the camera and behind - would have been better served back at their day jobs.

I'll attempt to divulge a general synopsis here, but the story is so far up its own ass that I'll likely miss something - Jeffrey Hubert (Willis) is the head of a multinational bank headquartered in the Queen City. Several of his local branches are robbed by highly-trained professionals. With the local police dragging their feet, the feds are called in to investigate. Agent Jonathan Montgomery (Meloni) leads the charge with Agents Stockwell (Dave Bautista) and Wells (Entourage's Adrian Grenier) in tow. Volatile from his wife's violent murder, Montgomery throws himself headlong into the investigation, working tirelessly to find and stop the perpetrators. As events proceed, however, military and political conspiracies reveal themselves.

The film starts off promising enough with a well-executed robbery scene and some great shots of the city of Cincinnati. It only goes downhill from there. VOD "Ed Wood" Steven C. Miller (Extraction, Submerged) allows far too many blatant continuity errors to slip by his watch. Somehow that doesn't surprise me. In one scene, Montgomery has a conversation with one of the bank robbers over Skype. On at least three occasions, we see Montgomery standing there talking to either a blank screen or the desktop. In another scene (this will only really stand out to Cincinnatians) two characters say that they need to go to West Chester to meet with a witness. Cut to the guys in a car riding through Covington, Kentucky on their way to meet that witness. For those of you who aren't familiar with Cincinnati, West Chester is about 30 minutes north of Covington. In a less self-serious film, these errors might be met with laughter of the "so-bad-it's-good" variety," but Marauders woefully lacks any sense of fun whatsoever. It's so bleak that the city of Cincinnati is portrayed in a constant state of thundershowers. We actually have sunshine here in real life. This isn't Seattle.

Without tongue-in-cheek sensibilities, nearly all of the drama falls flat. The characters we're supposed to empathize with - like Montgomery and police lieutenant Mims (Johnathon Schaech), whose wife is dying of cancer - are rendered inert as a result.

Two things kept me from completely tuning out of this movie - the setting and the performances. Even though Miller recycles one too many shots of the city, it's still cool to see a Cincy-set action picture on principle alone. I also thought Meloni, Bautista, and Grenier acted well even though Meloni's pretty much been playing this role for years on television. The movie itself doesn't feel too far off from last week's Law & Order reruns. Willis is sadly a caricature of himself these days as he's starting to slip down the same paycheck-to-paycheck path of Nicolas Cage. Let's hope the rumored Die Hard recalibration and Eli Roth's Death Wish bring him back to form.

Marauders appeals only to those from the city of Cincinnati. Even then, that's a bit of a stretch. Literally no one else should bother.

D

"Miles Ahead" Review

Oscar-nominated actor Don Cheadle (Hotel Rwanda, Captain America: Civil War) makes his feature writing and directorial debut with Miles Ahead, a fictionalized account of a few days in the life of jazz musician Miles Davis during his self-imposed "retirement" in the late 1970s.

Miles Ahead bucks traditional "biopic" formula by charting a very specific period as opposed to an entire life / career. It's actually more of a crime caper with biopic elements, such as flashbacks to his tumultuous relationship with ex-wife Frances Taylor (Emayatzy Corinealdi). Cheadle weaves these elements together in a way that's far more engaging than your typical "Behind the Music" movie, and his performance as Davis is the electricity that keeps the whole thing crackling. That said, I walked out of the theater as if I had seen nothing spectacular. Nothing bad, mind you; just nothing that's going to go down in history as a towering cinematic achievement.

The story is actually quite interesting even if it isn't all necessarily true. Davis (Cheadle) is living as a bitter recluse at his home in New York City when he is visited by Dave Brill (Ewan McGregor), a reporter for Rolling Stone magazine who hopes to get a scoop on the musician's comeback story. Turns out, Davis has actually recorded new music since falling off the scene, and the record company wants it badly. Harper Hamilton (Michael Stuhlbarg) manages a new up-and-comer (Keith Stanfield) whom everyone hopes will replace Davis. To seal their deal with Columbia Records, Harper and his cronies attempt to get their hands on Miles' new tape by any means necessary.

The film was shot entirely in my home city of Cincinnati, which makes a fine double for mid-to-late 20th century New York. Between this film and last year's Carol, I hope the city continues to attract A-list talent. The production design is great. Between that and the 16mm film stock Cheadle shot much of the movie on, Miles Ahead boasts a palpably gritty, 1970s feel that's evocative of some "blaxploitation" films of the era.

What ultimately killed the film for me was the #SocialMusic concert playing over the credits. At the end of the film, Dave speaks to Miles about what's next, to which Miles replies "A comeback." The second he says that, the film cuts straight to live footage of a present-day concert with Cheadle in full makeup playing onstage with Herbie Hancock, complete with modern light show and social media blurbs. It just feels too far out of context to make any sense whatsoever. A final title card shows Davis' silhouette with the text "1926 -." The real Miles Davis died in 1991, but the film makes an odd way of ultimately saying that even if you manage to "kill the trumpet player," his music and legacy will live forever. I ended up getting it, but that's a nice message that didn't need to be muddled so.

In the end Miles Ahead is a decent picture, albeit something of a letdown. Cheadle shows promise as a filmmaker, however, and should eventually produce a more confidently executed piece. It's worth seeing, but this won't be an Oscar hopeful.

B-

"Anomalisa" Review

Few storytellers tap into the complexities of human emotions with more honesty than Charlie Kaufman. With Anomalisa, he returns to the screen for the first time since 2008's Synecdoche, New York, now pulling double duty as writer/co-director with Duke Johnson.

From the poster above, it's easy to tell that Kaufman's new film is well-marketed with superlatives that make it sound like a life-changing masterwork of modern cinema. An Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Feature all but seals its status as the can't-miss puppet show of the season. While Anomalisa offers much more dramatic nuance and understated comedy than your typical Punch & Judy sketch, the film's stop-motion pleasures only take it so far.

By the time the credits rolled, I felt unmoved albeit mildly entertained.

The story follows Michael Stone (voiced by David Thewlis), a customer service guru who has just traveled to Cincinnati, Ohio to speak at a conference. Despite having a successful, bestselling book and a loving family back in Los Angeles, Michael struggles with the mundanity of his existence. To him, everyone looks and sounds alike (all ancillary characters, male and female, are voiced by the same man - Tom Noonan). Everyone, that is, except Lisa (voiced by Jennifer Jason Leigh), a seemingly insignificant woman who turns out to be the one person able to give Michael a fresh perspective. She's an anomaly in his mundane life; "anoma-Lisa," as he agrees to call her.

Questions are left frustratingly unanswered in the end, and it appears as if the events of the film don't really change Michael as much as we're lead to believe the whole time. Maybe that's the message, that temporary solutions are rarely the real answer. Or perhaps the final lesson really is that "there is no lesson" - something that Michael himself alludes during the film. Either way, that's kind of a ballsy message to try and get across in a film, but either way it didn't quite work for me. It's really a far more depressing piece of work than I expected.

Cincinnati natives especially should chuckle at the way Kaufman pokes fun of the city, especially the chili and the zoo. Being from that area myself, the jokes about both are pretty spot-on. That's really where Anomalisa shines. Its humor comes from the relatable nuances of Michael's day. It takes him five tries to get the card key to work to his hotel room, regardless of what rush, or lack thereof, he's in. He takes a ride in a cab where the driver won't shut up about things to do and see in the city.

Kaufman has always had a talent for creating vivid, almost fantastical, worlds that either mirror our own or exist within them. Anomalisa's sense of humor serves the world-building quite well, as we've all come to expect from Kaufman.

The voice acting is also strong, as is the technical, stop-motion wizardry from Johnson. I think this story is actually quite effective with puppets - especially the aspects regarding the Fregoli syndrome and certain moments when Michael begins to question his own identity. That said, it's still a story we've seen many times before, even occasionally from Kaufman himself (see Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind or the movie Her from frequent Kaufman collaborator Spike Jonze).

While Kaufman and Johnson deserve some props for creating such a vivid world filled with nuance and sleight humor, there's nothing from narrative or emotional standpoints that makes me want to rush out and recommend Anomalisa to everyone. Even though this film is meant to be smart animation for adults, my money is on Pixar's Inside Out for the Oscar. It navigates the complexities of human emotions more accessibly and therefore more effectively.

C

Sundance 2016 - "Goat" Review

Ben Schnetzer and Nick Jonas turn in excellent performances in Goat, a dramatic exploration of how delicate masculinity can be, especially in organized cultures promoting "brotherhood." As director Andrew Neel made clear in his Q&A, these kinds of issues aren't limited to Greek life. Everything from organized sports to the workplace is affected, in some way, by a power struggle and the need to prove oneself to one's peers.

Allusions to Lord of the Flies abound as young Brad (Schnetzer) decides to attend college and pledge the same fraternity as his brother Brett (Jonas). The hazing that Brad endures does nothing to aid his emotional state following a violent assault after a summer party. This tests his bond with Brett in ways neither expected.

The script by David Gordon Green (Prince Avalance, Pineapple Express) doesn't sanitize anything. This is a coming-of-age story of sorts that never dips into cliché.

It's clear to see Goat has roots in exploitation film. What might be considered smut in the hands of lesser storytellers, Goat's most brutal and graphic material only reinforces the film's message - that no matter if you're the bully or the bullied, masculinity is fragile.

Though some might dismiss the film's brutality the same way they wrote off The Revenant, Goat is an important story told through a unique lens. We don't usually get many college frat "dramas," let alone ones that pack such an emotional punch.

With wide distribution in question, only time will tell if the film successfully opens up a dialogue with university administration about the issues on display.

A