Solo's Satisfying Space Cowboy

Sometimes it happens – you try to make the jump to box office lightspeed, and the hyperdrive just doesn’t engage. It whines awkwardly and you’re left floating along in space. It doesn’t mean you’ve got a bad ship – it just didn’t perform like you wanted it to when it really counted. That’s pretty much the story with Solo’s Memorial Day box office. A disappointing 4-day take of barely $100 million, far short of the colossal franchise expectations. Which is something of a head-scratcher – because director Ron Howard has made a rousing, satisfying, audience-pleasing movie.

Exclamations of “franchise fatigue” will be made, and Disney will be blamed for opening Solo a mere 5 months after The Last Jedi. Given how fantastically well they’ve done over the last three Decembers, holding Solo until The holidays would have made sense. But let’s question that logic: Avengers: Infinity War came out less than 3 months on the heels of Black Panther – and was a colossal hit. So that “proximity” premise doesn’t always hold true. Part of the issue is likely due to Solo being a prequel – so there’s little sense of real jeopardy for our heroes, because we know they’ll make it out of any scrapes, having lived on to appear in the subsequent films. Solo also earned an A- CinemaScore from viewers, so we know that most audience members (myself included) loved the movie.

Solo’s development woes are well known. Original directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller (The Lego Movie, 21 Jump Street) were let go by Lucasfilm after their freewheeling, ad lib directorial style clashed with Kathleen Kennedy and Lawrence Kasdan. Ron Howard came in to right the ship, reshooting a huge amount of footage, and ballooning Solo’s budget in the process. So how’d Howard do? I think he did a sensational job. Receipts be damned, Solo is terrifically Old School, and being free of the larger Jedi mythos, it’s just plain fun.

Solo: A Star Wars Story, was written by none other than legendary screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan, along with his son Jonathan. Lawrence Kasdan wrote The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens. Nobody knows Star Wars better. Kasdan also wrote Silverado and Wyatt Earp – which is worth mentioning because overwhelmingly, Solo feels like a Western. Han Solo’s the outlaw gunslinger, there’s an elaborate train heist, Lando Calrissian’s the stylish riverboat gambler. Howard and the Kasdans have given Solo a real Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid vibe, and those tropes have always been a part of who Han Solo is: the rogue who shoots first – who’s in it for the money, but can’t help having a tarnished heart of gold.

Han Solo (Alden Ehrenreich) is growing up fast and wild on the streets of industrial ship-building planet Corellia; his best gal Qi’ra (Emilia Clarke) his accomplice in trying to steal something valuable enough to buy a ship and escape their world’s total lack of prospects – maybe build a future together. But things go south and the two lovers are separated. Han actually joins the Empire out of desperation, hoping to at least become a better pilot. But he’s not cut out for military life, and quickly falls in with a gang of outlaws posing as soldiers, looking to make a big score on military fuel supplies. There are a lot of predetermined plot points we know are coming – how Han meets Chewbacca (Joonas Suotamo). How they find the Millennium Falcon. Their knowing Lando Calrissian (Donald Glover) back in the day. So while many of these beats may seem obligatory, Howard and the Kasdans deserve credit for making them entertaining and satisfyingly surprising.

The cast is the glue. Alden Ehrenreich’s endured a lot of grief, (“He needed acting lessons!”) tasked with the unenviable task of filling Harrison Ford’s shoes, but he does a great job here. He’s charming and funny and easily carries the picture. He’s a terrific fit in the role. Thandie Newton is great as part of the gang, and I really enjoyed Woody Harrelson as Tobias Beckett, the older gang leader who somewhat reluctantly mentors Han into the life: “Assume everyone will betray you and you will never be disappointed.” He’s a great character. Likewise Donald Glover, who knocks it out of the park as Lando. He’s a fantastic incarnation of Billy Dee Williams’ original character, intent on style and deliberate with charm. He and Ehrenreich have great chemistry together. But as unfiltered, riotously righteous robot L3-37, it’s Phoebe Waller-Bridge who steals this movie. L3 is captivating and hilarious and a fantastic addition to the seemingly endless roll call of Star Wars characters. 

It's worth noting that Solo’s color palette is overwhelmingly gray and drab, with the murky grime often working at cross purposes with the film’s generally lighter tone. Lando’s yellow shirt and a red cape Qi’ra wears in one scene, create the only splashes of color in the film. That muddy monochrome may be helping to dampen audience engagement to some degree. A highlight of the film is the absolutely spectacular train heist – but it occurs fairly early in the film, and no other set piece quite tops it in terms of sheer spectacle. 

But as a Star Wars fan, I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. It’s full of references to other little corners of that universe, and there are some definite surprises – including one whopper – along the way. Most importantly, Solo is fun. It evokes those old fashioned Dirty Dozen “train gang” flicks that spin a good yarn and keep you entertained and smiling. Do we need a whole sub-franchise of Solo adventures? Probably not. But if you haven’t seen Solo yet, don’t write it off as a disappointment. It’s a helluva good time in the dusty streets of deep space, so if you like Star Wars, better grab the controls and “Punch it!” and see Solo on the big screen.  

Avengers: Infinity War Leaves No Stone Unturned

I guess you can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs - but know this: Avengers: Infinity War is one hell of a damned omelette. I've only seen Infinity War once so far, but that's enough to realize it's the shadow-casting monolith of all superhero movies - a film we've been building up to since Iron Man changed everything back in 2008 - and as the 19th entry in Marvel Studios' massive movie mosaic, humbling evidence of extraordinary foresight and planning, that leaves an emotional blast crater amidst the pop culture landscape.

By now, most eager beavers have experienced Infinity War, but I'm still going to try to stay spoiler-free here, then get more in-depth and specific in a week or so, after I've had my second helping. These days, as we keep seeing with the Star Wars franchise, the greater the anticipation for a film, often the more polarizing and indignant the fan response. We've been waiting for this movie since we got our first glimpse of Mad Titan Thanos in a post-credits scene of 2012's The Avengers. That's a lot of build-up.

This picture does not disappoint. Written by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, and directed by Anthony and Joe Russo (Captain America: The Winter Soldier; Captain America: Civil War), Infinity War is an incredible decade-spanning example of deft execution. Imagine the complexities of taking five or six of your favorite franchises and whipping up multiple overlapping sequels that suddenly allows for the interaction of numerous unrelated characters: Thor meets Rocket. Doctor Strange meets Spider-Man. Black Panther meets Captain America. It could easily feel muddled and obligatory. Not so here.

Make no mistake: Thanos is the most satisfying villain in ages. Too often our heroes' antagonists are one-dimensional behemoths who bluster and bore, Wonder Woman and Justice League being the most recent and egregious examples. With Thanos, we're finally getting a villain who's a character. Who's got depth. Like the all great villains, he's the hero of his story, and from where he sits, he's more than justified in undertaking his agenda. Scattered throughout the cosmos are six Infinity Stones - artifacts that when combined, endow the wielder with unlimited power - the ability to annihilate countless billions with the snap of his fingers.

Josh Brolin is simply iconic as Thanos. He's in nearly every scene, and he rules. We've seen motion-capture performances evolve mightily over the last couple of years, and Brolin's performance is of equal stature with Andy Serkis's Apes work here. He crafts a tremendous character, rich with emotion and malevolence, and the effects work is so stellar I kept asking myself where they found this twelve-foot-tall actor at.

The Russos aren't screwing around, and Infinity War opens at full throttle, with dire stakes from the very outset. It's jarring to board a ride that’s already going at full speed and you feel you'd better not let go. Thanos has a goon squad - The Black Order - that quickly establish themselves as formidable and cool. I particularly enjoyed Ebony Maw (Tom Vaughan-Lawlor), though they're all unique with great character design.

The chess pieces are scattered across the board on several different planets, so we're frequently moving between small groups of characters - a dynamic that works and never becomes tiresome. Because we've had years to invest ourselves in these characters, the stakes feel incredibly dire to us. The outcome matters because we truly care about these people. Nearly every character has been given ample moments to shine, though for me, Zoe Saldana's Gamora is a particular standout. She's amazing here, as is Chris Hemsworth's Thor.

It's fairly common knowledge that this is the first of two Infinity War films, with the second as-yet untitled installment arriving next year. So while you may be expecting an Empire Strikes Back cliffhanger, Markus, McFeely, and the Russos take a more Thelma and Louise approach to cliffs, driving the audience right off the edge.

Audiences crave the thrill of the new and the shock of the unexpected, and may find they get more than they bargained for. Like me, I suspect they'll be wanting to head right back for a second viewing as soon as possible. It's a lot to take in, but Marvel has succeeded wildly, and the shock waves of Infinity War will be with us for a long time. Make haste and drink deep, True Believers: Thanos is here.

The Silent Screams of A Quiet Place

It doesn’t take much clairvoyance to predict that A Quiet Place is going to easily end up on my year-end best-list.

I’ve got a major soft-spot for economical genre thrillers that do a lot with a little, putting the oomph into a strong script over big budget – and does A Quiet Place deliver on all those fronts, and then some.

 

The small town streets are deserted, debris and the wake of pandemonium strewn everywhere. No people – just silence. A plague? A plague of monsters. No far-flung sci-fi premise, but just a few months up the road from where we are now, horrific creatures have descended on Earth, shredding the populace down to the most fleeting bands of survivors. A Quiet Place focuses on a single rural family, hiding out on a remote farm, just trying to exist together. Ever knock something over accidently? In this world, that’ll likely get you killed – because these alien beasts hunt by sound. The parents (Emily Blunt and John Krasinski, who also directs) must be constantly vigilant that their children maintain absolute silence, as any sneeze or sudden noise is enough to draw one of these things on you in seconds. They’ve taken great pains to put systems in place to maintain quiet and signal warnings. Bare feet pad quietly on sand-covered paths, every threat carefully planned for. Until it’s not.

 

A Quiet Place is practically dialogue-free, largely told via sign language and scant subtitles. The effect is beyond unnerving. John Krasinski is simply a revelation as a director here, working with a script from writers Bryan Woods and Scott Beck, it’s a master class in storytelling economics and structural effectiveness – all of which is only surpassed by the empathy of character. Blunt and Krasinski are also real-life husband and wife, and along with Noah Jupe and Millicent Simmonds create an all-too rare depiction of a close-knit family who genuinely care for each other and are trying to hold on, despite the crushing anxiety and dread around every corner. Simmonds is a tremendous find – the actress herself is deaf, as is her character, and having a character who’s lost in their own unique silence beyond what’s mandated by survival makes for fascinating family dynamics and superb acting. That’s all I’ll say as far as plot, but know there is a lot going on here in this simple and compelling premise.

 

Krasinski has made a sinew-taught thriller that stands tall among the likes of Get Out, Don’t Breathe and The Gift, that shares DNA with films as diverse as Pitch Black and The Mist, but that’s refreshing, unpredictable and unique. Danish cinematographer Charlotte Bruus Christensen (The Girl on the Train) immerses her camera in every tight corner the characters experience, making the farm environment feel real and convincing. She and Krasinski do phenomenal work focusing on character faces, making sure their eyes and expressions deftly fill the void left by any absence of dialogue. Editor Christopher Tellefsen is the man responsible for the increase in heart medication prescriptions as a result of this relentless 90-minutes. Emily Blunt blew the doors off in Edge of Tomorrow, but this might be my favorite performance of hers. She never overcompensates to make up for absent speech, and goes through a gauntlet of emotions that’s astonishing to behold. Clearly this “family project” inspired everyone to be free to do their best work.

 

It’s interesting to consider how much awareness and empathy A Quiet Place will likely inspire among the hearing for the deaf community. The audience gets to palpably experience what it might feel like to have a different range of expression from others, likely often taken for granted. Krasinski is the real deal, and those in search of smart, unnerving thrills, miss this at their peril. Very highly recommended.

Ready Player One: Virtual reality - literal overload

Ready Player One is primed for success. Every ingredient is there. A beloved pop culture novel, adapted by a directorial living legend - and not just a living legend, but the very one whose eighties touchstones of nostalgia punctuated countless pages of Ernest Cline's wonderful novel. Dream come true.

I suspect many viewers (especially ones who didn't read the book) are going to love Steven Spielberg's Ready Player One. I certainly enjoyed large dollops of it. Both book and film are real works of imagination. Cline's novel of a bleak near-future where everyone's plugged into an immersive virtual reality game called the OASIS, was a magical Wonka-esque riff on nerd culture's shared iconography, but also a lightly masked cautionary tale of our escapes threatening to turn into collective dependency. When the creator (Mark Rylance) of the OASIS dies, he reveals that a special Easter Egg has been hidden somewhere in the vast gaming landscape - bestowing wealth and complete control of the OASIS to whoever finds it. It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World meets Tron.

No expense was spared, and it shows. And for this viewer, Ready Player One was an infinitely more enjoyable reading experience than a movie. One of the great appeals of the book is that each reader gets to conjure up their own imaginary mindscapes of the OASIS and the myriad characters. That really made for a fun read. Spielberg directs with great energy and vision, but there's something about seeing everything previously imagined made so literal that kind of deadens and overwhelms the result. There is just so much CGI on view, it's impossible to catch all the details, and it makes it a little hard to really get behind the characters. There are some substantial changes from the book. Hero Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan) and his gaming avatar Parzival only meet fellow gamers Art3mis (Olivia Cooke) and Aech (Lena Waithe) at the end of Cline's book. Here, they all meet up "IRL" much earlier. Part of the fun of the premise is the uncertainty of who the actual person might really be behind their avatar. When Wade wants to meet Samantha, Art3mis's real self, she warns he might be disappointed in her, and when they do (gasp!), she has a birthmark on her face. Which is pretty ridiculous given Ms. Cooke's overall gorgeousness. She's not exactly the Elephant Man, or a leper.

As Wade's antagonist, oily corporate CEO Nolan Sorrento, Ben Mendelsohn does what's supposed to be a mid-Atlantic American accent of some kind, but it seems very odd - almost Southern at times, and it's pretty distracting. Sorrento's also given a Bond-girl femme-fatale called F'nale, who's unnecessary and a little R’diculous.

I wish Spielberg had taken more stabs at social commentary here. When a bad guy holding a gun is patiently told by a squad of police to "put down your weapon," it's pretty tone-deaf in this day and age. You're practically screaming for the cop to yell, "We're only not shooting you 'cause you're white!" You have to wonder what the Paul Verhoeven of the Robocop era would have done with this story. The cast is engaging, Sheridan in kind of an earnest, early Shia LaBeouf kind of way. But too often the tone feels more generic than piercing.

The book was a lot funnier, and there's not nearly as much humor here as there should be. The digital effects and design are all incredibly impressive (MechaGodzilla!), but they're also so inescapable that they become oppressive as well. I'll say this - the mid-section where the characters must journey into the movie of Stanley Kubrick's The Shining is phenomenal - a real tour de force. That sequence is worth the price of admission - I only wish the rest of the film had been as clever and engaging. While your mileage may vary, if you’re on the fence, absolutely see the film in a theater, on the biggest screen possible - as the film’s visuals will be beyond diminished on any home video format. 

The tween-friendly robo-riot of Pacific Rim: Uprising

Pacific Rim: Uprising will at least be remembered as the movie that dethroned Black Panther after ruling the box office for five consecutive weeks. A short window, as Steven Spielberg's highly anticipated Ready Player One opened within the next week. This franchise-expanding sequel is by no means a bad movie - after all, if you're eager to see giant robots duke it out with huge monsters, that's ultimately how you'll measure the film's success - and I love my monsters and robots.

But know going in this is nowhere near the magic pulp explosion of the great Guillermo del Toro's original. While del Toro receives a producer credit (one of many), Pacific Rim: Uprising has little of his fervor and spark. Writer-director Steven S. DeNight cut his teeth in TV, largely as executive producer on Daredevil, Spartacus:War of the Damned, and Spartacus: Gods of the Arena. So he's well-familiar with orchestrating mayhem, and Pacific Rim: Uprising is a great career stepping stone. It's very shrewdly aimed at the overseas box office, which is where the original made the lion's share of it's bank. The same things's clearly working here, so it's pretty certain the film will be seen as a success for DeKnight. He may not be Guillermo, but he's no slouch, and he's definitely a cat to watch.

But be advised, this Pacific Rim has a very different overall tone than the first film. John Boyega (Star Wars: The Last Jedi) stars as the son of Idris Elba's Stacker Pentecost character. But he's more of a rascal. He's had scrapes with the law, and his time at the Jaeger Academy flight school didn't go too well. Casting Boyega is another really smart move, as his charisma pretty much carries the picture. Co-star Scott Eastwood seems pretty lost in comparison. Boyega seems to be making sure every scene he's in has energy and fun. He's definitely the MVP here. Early on, Boyega's Jake Pentecost meets a young chipmunk-cheeked thief/salvager (Caileee Spaeny), who's so plucky she's managed to build her own Jaeger (!) out of spare parts that she's named (weary sigh) "Scrapper." Right there, that ought to tell you where we're heading, and who our core demographic is.

Because Pacific Rim: Uprising is basically a kid's movie. Of course Jake gets pulled back into duty at the Jaeger academy, and the young upstart-orphan Jaeger-maker goes along, too, where she joins a band of other young teens, training to be the next generation of Jaeger pilots. So there is a lot of teen acting going on here. At times, the film's tone feels more like a Disney Channel or Power Rangers episode. Nothing wrong with that, as you can actually feel pretty good sending your kids to see this one - it's just way less adult than the original.

Burn Gorman and Charlie Day reprise their scientist characters from the first film, and both do a great job, contributing to the surprise quotient of the film's plot, which is more unpredictable than you might expect. Cinematographer Dan Mindel (Star Trek, Star Trek: Into Darkness and Star Wars: The Force Awakens) makes things look gritty and dynamic, and where a large percentage of the Kaiju-fighting chaos of the original was set at night, here much of the carnage and destruction is in broad daylight. The Jaeger and Kaiju designs are the real stars of this show, and they don't disappoint. You've got serious robot eye candy happening here. Though I did feel that here the Jaegers often move too fast and less realistically than they should. But, sequel - bigger, faster, yadda-yadda. The 3rd act finale sure doesn't disappoint. You want giant robots fighting colossal monsters, you've come to the right place. But if you're looking for more adult and intense monster mayhem, Kong: Skull Island is probably going to be more your cup of tea.

So grab the kids, and manage your expectations accordingly. But Pacific Rim: Uprising is definitely fun. And sometimes fun is enough. 

The Big Sick is the cure for what ails you

In an age where xenophobia and racism continue to climb up out of the mire, it can be easy to forget about the healing and connective power of love - of a romantic comedy. Well, of a romantic comedy with a medically-induced coma.

Pakistan-born comedian Kumail Nanjiani doesn't just star in The Big Sick - and he didn't just co-write it, either. Along with his wife, writer Emily V. Gordon, they pretty much lived it. And as comedies go, it ought to be right up next to Lady Bird as one of the most refreshing and realistically hilarious movies in years.

Playing a character also called Kumail, who's deadpanning his way into a stand-up comedy career, Nanjiani is doing his act when a woman in the audience tries to get his attention. A whirlwind first night leads to cautious dating - very cautious on Kumail's part, forever dodging his Muslim parents' attempts to nudge him into an arranged marriage. Many of the delights of The Big Sick are best discovered unprepared, but the character of Emily (a delightful Zoe Kazan), does suddenly become very ill. Suddenly Kumail is dealing with Emily's parents, wonderfully played by Holly Hunter and Ray Romano.

Director Michael Showalter (Hello, My Name is Doris) does a splendid job of staging small, intimate scenes between Emily and Kumail that feel natural and spontaneous. Kumail is a challenging guy, and part of the magic of The Big Sick is that their evolving relationship is so much smarter than the typical rom-com formula. They behave like real people, not formulaic "types." They screw up and make mistakes. They say the wrong things. And life's timing can be truly confounding.

Kumail Nanjiani is hilarious, and a real find. He does a fantastic job here, and it must have been incredibly challenging to write and perform a retelling of one of the most transformative periods of your own life. I loved how Kumail can't resist making comedy out of something, even in sometimes inopportune moments. The tone of The Big Sick isn't always rom-com either. These people went through a lot, and Hunter and Romano are wonderful as two parents dealing with their own problems, who are completely unsure of how to deal with Kumail's eccentric presence in their lives.

The Big Sick is refreshingly real and open at portraying family culture clash. There's virtually no exposition, and Kumail's dilemma of honoring his family while trying to stay true to his own life is something you don't have to be an immigrant to appreciate. Race may be a big deal when it comes to revealing your relationship to family, but between two people who are beginning to feel something together, not so much.

I should probably shut up, already. But see this movie. There's a reason Gordon and Nanjiani were nominated for Best Original Screenplay. The dialogue and characters here are fantastic, real gems. And the timing of a story that just realistically shows the angst of cultural differences amidst the normal uncertainty of dating, life and the unknown, is incredibly refreshing. These are the kinds of new voices we need in film, and watching The Big Sick was a great experience, and gave me a real dose of hope - take as often as needed. Available to stream on Amazon.

THE TERROR Takes Shape!

In 1845, British sea captain Sir John Franklin led two ships - HMS Erebus and HMS Terror - on a voyage of Arctic exploration, intending to divine the last unnavigated area of the Northwest Passage. The entire expedition was lost. Novelist Dan Simmons wrote a fictionalized telling of the mysterious events - The Terror - as Franklin and his starving crew are stalked across the Arctic by some kind of monster.

AMC unleashes The Terror as a new series premiering this Monday, March 26th. Executive Produced by Ridley Scott, The Terror stars Ciarán Hinds and Jared Harris.

Super excited for this one! Master and Commander meets The Thing? Have a look: