Babylon

When this writer was born, a film about Hollywood and the transition from silent to talkies was introduced to the world.  It was light and breezy, funny, engaging without the slightest off-color reference, set in the 20’s with a bouncy soundtrack, this is not a remake of that film.  We see a woman with an exaggerated case of coke-fueled chutzpah working her way up the ladder, an incredibly rich and handsome leading man trying to figure out if he’s going to be able to survive the transition, a dreamer who wants to realize his ambitions as a director, and a studio musician who shows how to handle extreme prejudice.  Without question, the soundtrack is fantastic, but the dancing is not Gene Kelly, Donald O’Connor and Debbie Reynolds by any stretch of the imagination. 

Think Day of the Locust, Sin City and the Great Gatsby with every debased drug-induced act of desperation to make magic on the celluloid screen.  The goal is to be noticed, make tons of money, and to create an illusion of everything’s all right when, in fact, after the initial high of success, it’s a rat race to get back to even half way to where you started.  This is a high stakes crap game of a film with not so nice backers…no Nathan Detroit or Sky Masterson, the leading lady is not a sweet little ingenue starlet (Margot Robbie), the hero (Diego Calva) is doing everything he can to make it in the business, a Gatsbyesque leading man (Brad Pitt) with a serious misconception of reality and a big drinking problem, Hedda Hopper’s alter-ego (Jean Smart), and whole menagerie of partiers, gangsters, whackadoodles, chickens, rats, a cast of thousands, and a very tempermental pachyderm.

There really isn’t much of a middle-road here.  You’ll either love it or be disgusted beyond belief or both.  What can I say…I can’t really give this an overall star rating…it’s 4, a 2, a 7 a total hot mess  --- you decide, you’ve been advised, but definitely listen to the soundtrack.  And I cahn't sten im.     

Everything, Everywhere, All At Once

Michelle Yeoh is, without a doubt, one of the best martial arts practitioners, ever.  She made Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon look like a walk in the park and in EEAAO, she even tells you she's really good and proves it.  Her role as wife, mother, daughter/caregiver, laundromat owner and unexpected savior of the multi-verse is mind-boggling and you'll either want to see it again to figure it out or run screaming into the night with a large unexplained craving for hotdogs and a googly-eye bindi.  

After the initial viewing, this writer was left with a feeling of deja vu ala Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, the family version without lab-work.  I've heard of tripping on LSD or taking a magic mushroom trip and that it can really set your brain in another not so normal direction...this film personifies what happens when stress reaches a boiling point and blows the lid off a once semi-complicated existence.  The answer to life is fairly simple, but the method of reaching that conclusion is like Mr. Toad's Wild Ride on steroids.  Sit-down, strap-in, shut-up and here we go.  I recommend that you take this film in small bits, maybe concentrate on each of the main characters individually to make more sense from the seemingly nonsensical whole.  Cheers to the entire cast for a job well done, Rating...a 3 star audit of your taxes, gird your loins.

Wakanda Forever

The long awaited sequel to Black Panther is here.  T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman) has been honored by his character’s remaining family and the world, as we’ve come to know it now that Black Panther is no longer, is in jeopardy, once again.  You knew that was coming because a comic book hero wouldn’t be needed unless they have something heroic to do.  Who will take his place and how will the tribes of Wakanda be united again?  Lots of twists and turns, some surprises, some not so much, but tons of great CGI and  some almost relentless action sequences.  There are so many very strong women represented here, not just the guards.  Fight like a girl, think like a girl, don’t take “no” for an answer.  Cheers to Letitia Wright, Lupita Nyong’o, Angela Bassett, Danai Gurira, Dominique Thorne,  Florence Kasumba, Michaela Coel…R.I.P. Chadwick Boseman…you may be gone, but you will live as Wakanda will live forever.  Rating:  3.75 bright blue vibrainium stars – as with most MCU films, please don’t leave before the credits are done, you’ll kick yourself. 

 

Elvis

 

Every time I see a Baz Luhrman production, I expect it to have a certain cinematography slick sparkle about it.  It’s in the costuming, the hairstyles, the background colors, the set designs, a sort of surrealistic super reality.  Elvis doesn’t disappoint, in fact, I think it’s a borderline overachiever of the year, but hoo buddy, it captures “The King” from the Sun Records beginnings to the Las Vegas residency years with pinpoint accuracy. 

The soft and slimy underbelly is Colonel Tom Parker (Tom Hanks) who provides the narration and appears to be the stalwart friend to an impressionable and naive Elvis (Austin Butler).  He’s one nasty piece of work and Hanks does a stellar job of reaching down to the bottom of Parker’s cold and calculating heart to keep his “golden calf” from getting out of the corral.

Hopefully, Mr. Butler is more than a “one hit wonder”.  It’s an amazing performance, the music is classic, the costuming, hair and make-up is dead-on, and if you close your eyes, you’d swear that the King still lives.  Rating:  It’s one for the money, two for the show, three to get ready, and go cats go, and in the words of Carl Perkins…don’t you step on my blue suede shoes.

Cyrano

Tangled up in blues with declarations of love to find, found, lose, assume, and realizations that you can’t always get what you want.  Hearts are fickle and Roxanne (Haley Bennett) is decidedly so or so it seems.  She was born into privilege, he was not and add to that he is of a diminutive stature and believes himself to be the freak he is labeled by the ignorant.  When you lack in one area of your life, you may need to sharpen your survival skills in other ways.  Definitely the case here for both.  Cyrano (Peter Dinklage) has  puppy dog eyes, a voice that would melt butter, the soul of a poet and is a giant among men even at 4’5”.  He is hopelessly in love with the fair Roxanne; he’s resigned himself to always being bullied, and never being able to consummate his love or even reveal it to her.  Enter Christian, a soldier who is part of Cyrano’s battalion and instant eye-candy to Roxanne.  He is likewise smitten at first sight and we’re off on a slippery slope to save the fair maid from a life of bondage to a lavicious Duke, the likes of which shouldn’t be allowed to touch Roxanne’s hem.  Tale as old as time, but this beast isn’t going to turn into a prince.  The music is purposeful and carries the film along almost as a background to the story.  It’s lovely, and bloody, and sumptuous, and melancholy.  This won’t be everybody’s cuppa tea, but it’s worth a go.  If only we could change the outcomes of classic stories.  Rating: 3.75 glorious stars  

 

Spiderman – Far From Home

Time tripping through the Multi-verse…this is like playing 8 dimensional chess without any knowledge of how to play the 2 dimension version.  Add to that, characters that I’m sure every Spiderman fan in said multi-verse has come to know and love or hate, different MJ’s and a very definite tie-in to the new Dr. Strange movie.  This is the Benjamin Cumberbatch that rocks the Marvel world.  Unfortunately, this writer has not seen all of the Spiderman versions, so some of the villians and their back stories are as foreign as Sanskrit to me, but after the third time watching this I get it, sort of.  From what I gather, Peter Parker is accused of killing one of the villians (Jake Gyllenhall) and that was misunderstood by everybody except MJ and Ned, his girlfriend and friend, Aunt May (who has morphed into Marissa Tomei), and Happy, Ironman Tony Stark’s driver and confidant (Jon Favreau) who is totally smitten with her, integrating Peter’s life with his on a family level.  It gets wrapped up in cobwebs when Peter tries to enlist the help of Dr. Strange to right a wrong and change his fate and the fate of his friends due to the misunderstanding.  Sort of a backassward It’s A Wonderful Life with conditions.  This is truly a huge undertaking involving massive amounts of “wait, what, oh, that’s who you are” moments, some tragedy, some angst, and a swinging time is had by all.  Never fear Spidey fans everywhere…the story will continue and the next episode will, I’m sure, be as exciting and action packed as this one.  Rating:  Tobey, Andrew, Tom, and Ben – four stars in the Spiderverse!

Jungle Cruise

 Or how to take a simple boat ride at an amusement park and turn it into something 20 times more exciting.  This is not Raiders of the Lost Arc, The Mummy or Pirates of the Caribbean Parts 1, 2, 3, or 4, but it is reminiscent of several bits in all of these series.  This can be a blessing or a curse, fortunately, it’s a blessing and in the words of Maui, You’re welcome.  I would have never thought to put Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson and Emily Blunt together in an action film, and this one has a lot of action, but it works, so well that watching it repeatedly isn’t like taking a three hour tour and getting lost.  Nope we’re going for the gold, or in this case, the cure for everything and the gold would be at the box office, streaming and disc sales, and a renewed interest in Disneyland. 

Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful trip, that started from this tropic port, aboard this tiny ship.  There is a millionaire-brother MacGregor, but no wife, a Skipper, but no first mate, a Professor, but it’s Lillian, not Mary Ann…and we’re on a tributary of the Amazon instead of a tropic port.  Instead of a movie star there’s a Prince Joachim (Jesse Plemmons) and Paul Giamatti as Nilo, who owns the Minnow, I mean La Quila, his bird says it all, “Frank owes me money” and is part of the reason for the cruise. The puns are endless and the banter between Frank and Lilly actually works.  Add in some surprises, twists and turns and a frank discussion of someone’s life dilemma and you’ve got a winner that’s ready for a sequel.  Rating:  A Toucan, A Cockatoo, A Jaguar, and a Couple of Swigs of Amazon White Lighting (it’s disgusting, but potent).