Arrival is Top Shelf Sci-Fi with Brains

Fear of the unknown. The impulse responsible for more of our behaviors - both good and bad - than nearly any other aspect of the human condition. It practically defines us. So when a dozen colossal spaceships appear at various points across the globe with no explanation, how do we react?

Arrival is the anti-Independence Day. It spoils nothing to say that there are no colossal battles or CGI annihilated cities in Arrival. It joins the short list of science fiction films like Close Encounters and Interstellar aimed squarely at adults, that stays smart and uses the tropes of the genre to say more about the nature of mankind, than about the nature of alien life. This will be a pretty short review, as the less you read about Arrival before you see it, the better. Amy Adams is Dr. Louise Banks, a university linguist recruited by the government to try and find a way of communicating with our mysterious visitors, in hopes of cracking the big question - why are they here? 

Written by Eric Heisserer (from a story by Ted Chiang) and directed by the great Denis Villeneuve (Prisoners, Sicario), Arrival is a breath of fresh air on so many levels. Example: there's a lot of tech on display in the military command center beneath the ship, but for once we're not inundated with electronic product placement - there's no jarring close-up screaming "CISCO" or "NOKIA." Arrival also steers away from the trend of CNN-branded faux newscasts with real-life anchor cameos, which always seem to lessen the feeling of realism, rather than increase it. Villeneuve has become such an accomplished filmmaker, I'm frankly giddy knowing he's the guy directing next year's Blade Runner 2049. Are we ever in good hands.

Jeremy Renner and Forest Whitaker are both terrific here, but this is all Amy Adams, who's in nearly every scene and delivers a nuanced, at times heartbreaking performance. It's so refreshing to see a realistic adult female character who's not dependent on men or approval or who's a prisoner of her emotions. I suspect audiences are going to welcome her character and the rich emotional storytelling of Arrival with open arms. Very highly recommended.

In Through the Out Door: Doctor Strange Will See You Now

It was a hard trick to pull off, but once again, Marvel’s done it. After the nuts and bolts success of Captain America: Civil War, adapting the more mystical and esoteric story of Doctor Strange could have gone wrong and felt tone-deaf any number of ways. You think Thor is psychedelic and astral! But there are two things Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige always seems to excel at: hammering the story into shape, and casting. And with Doctor Strange, Marvel has delivered one of their most unique and satisfying films yet.

Created by Steve Ditko in 1963, Stephen Strange is a brilliant neurosurgeon who rivals Iron Man’s Tony Stark in the arrogance department. When a devastating car accident turns his surgeon’s hands into mangled pulp, Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) embarks on a quest to find the rumored healing knowledge that can restore his defining abilities, the spark that lets his narcissistic ego blaze brightly. Without the power (and vanity) of his peerless skills, he has no idea who he really is.

His journey takes him to the Himalayan temple of Kamar-Taj, a remote sanctuary where Strange hopes to find the secrets necessary to restore himself. What he finds there is much, much more. He becomes a pupil of The Ancient One (Tilda Swinton), an ageless Master of the mystic arts from whom Strange learns more about the cosmos – and himself – than he ever dared imagine. Swinton’s casting was pretty controversial. The Ancient One was always Asian in the comics - so whitewashing accusations flew fast and furious. But I have to say, I think it’s an effective choice. If they’d kept the character Asian, I think we’d have another hoary Pai Mei/Master Po stereotype, and Swinton is just superb here, making The Ancient One a being who seems to transcend age, race or gender. It’s a cool choice and it works. Her scenes with Cumberbatch are tremendous, and a sequence where she essentially pulls back the curtain on the universe to Strange, sending his consciousness reeling, is a fantasy tour de force. I saw Doctor Strange in 2-D, and for the first time in ages, I found myself thinking that this just might be a film actually worth seeking out in 3-D.

Massive credit has to go to director Scott Derrickson (Sinister, Deliver Us from Evil), whose horror pedigree brings a real sense of atmospheric “otherness” that gives Doctor Strange a unique flavor that really does make it seem a few degrees from normal within the Marvel Universe. Like Guardians of the Galaxy, it’s fantastic to see that Feige has the confidence and scope to have different tones and styles that make up this massive tapestry. Screenwriter Jon Spaihts (with Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill) has done a fantastic job of keeping Strange clever and full of wit, without ever seeming snarky or aloof. It’s a smart adaptation, but it’s always fun, which isn’t easy to pull off. A sequence where Strange lies dying in an operating theater, while his disembodied spectral self does battle with an ethereal foe is an imaginative, nail-biting crowd-pleaser. Cumberbatch is a perfect embodiment of the character, detached and severe at times, but never insufferable.  As the villainous Kaecilius, Mads Mikkelsen is threatening, but a bit too mellow and low energy. Guardians’ Ronan (Lee Pace) is an erupting volcano in comparison. Rachel McAdams, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Benjamin Bratt and Benedict Wong are all great additions to the cast. Bratt is particularly cool.

I won’t spoil the plot or surprises of Doctor Strange, but fans of the comic are going to find themselves thoroughly satisfied, and audiences hungry for something fresh, smart and engaging are going to have a fantastic time. Like any Marvel saga, stay all the way through the end credits, for more than one bonus scene. I loved Doctor Strange, and my hunch is you'll be looking for a red cape of your own once you've seen it.

Sagnificent Seven

Over the last year, we’ve had something of a Western resurgence, easily one of my favorite genres. So I was pretty excited for Antoine Fuqua’s take on the John Sturges classic The Magnificent Seven (1960). A wild west rendering of Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai, the story of powerless villagers hiring gunslingers to defend their town from evil men works well across many environments, even deep space, as in 1980’s Battle Beyond the Stars. As we saw with last years’ The Hateful Eight, The Revenant and Bone Tomahawk, Westerns can still connect with audiences and deliver primal, pulp storytelling, with antagonists facing off against the backdrop of the wild frontier. Sadly, Fuqua’s well-intentioned remake isn’t nearly in the same class as those other films.

 

Denzel Washington takes on the Yul Brynner role (and black garb), while Chris Pratt riffs off of Steve McQueen’s cantankerous ne’er-do-well. Ethen Hawke and Vincent D’Onofrio, round out the mercenary mob, with Martin Sensmeier, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo and Byung-hun Lee providing backup diversity – and that’s really part of the problem with Seven. Fuqua is to be commended for bringing a diverse ethnic sensibility to the film – but the script never does their varied makeup any justice as characters. The character work in Seven is one of its weakest elements. Sensmeier and Lee exude tremendous charisma as Native American and Asian recruits, but other than “The elders say I’m on a different path,” and being good with knives, these two are brooding cyphers. Garcia-Rulfo has the thankless designation of Mexican Outlaw. This is a likable cast, but they’re woefully underserved by the script (Richard Wenk and Nic Pizzolatto).

 

Haley Bennett is the town’s voice who recruits the Seven as protectors, who seems cast mainly due to a resemblance to Jennifer Lawrence. If The Magnificent Seven was more fun, much of the sketchiness here could be forgiven, but unfortunately the film plays out in dreary, overbearing, and all too perfunctory fashion. The death blow is Peter Sarsgaard’s land-grabbing villain, played as a man seemingly driven by heavy-lidded boredom.  He drags himself through scenes with lethargic flippancy, letting all the air of menace escape from the balloon. His character is a yawning misfire.

 

If you want to see a film where the director has boundless enthusiasm for the genre, go back and check out Sam Raimi’s The Quick and the Dead (1995). It’s brisk, faithful to a legion of tropes, and makes even the most hastily glimpsed characters memorably vivid, while always maintaining a sense of fun. It’s one of the countless, more engaging westerns that kept popping up for me while The Magnificent Seven mechanically unspooled. Pale Rider, Django Unchained, Tombstone – and Lawrence Kasdan’s Silverado. I’m betting Antoine Fuqua’s watched Silverado a lot, and you can sense him gamely trying to evoke a similar dynamic contrast between scenic grandeur and bullet-firing mayhem.

But for whatever reasons, this iteration of The Magnificent Seven just doesn’t stay with you. When the considerable gunsmoke finally clears, you’re likely to find that disappointment is what’s left standing.  

Blind Panic: Don't Breathe

Nearly every summer, a sleeper emerges that you've never heard of that seemingly comes out of nowhere and captures audience's attention - usually a horror thriller. As summer gasped out its swan song, this year that distinction went to Don't Breathe.

You probably know the premise - a trio of young thieves plan a home invasion where the victim is blind. An easy score. Except the man in the dark is a Gulf War veteran, for whom blindness has become a superpower. He knows every inch of his hermit-imposed environment, his ears attuned to even the slightest noise. Played by the great Stephen Lang (Avatar), his blind man is a powerful, dangerous presence - a coiled spring. His quiet patience reminds you of Charles Bronson.

Directed by Fede Alvarez, (Evil Dead), Don't Breathe is a really hard movie to talk about without veering off the highway into spoiler territory, which I don't want to do. It's an extremely visceral and effective film, and the premise is stupendous. That first half of the movie is pure gasp-inducing adrenaline. The blind man's house is deep in the abandoned wasteland of derelict Detroit neighborhoods, and the absence of neighbors or passersby creates a foreboding, apocalyptic mood.

The trio of thieves are solid, especially Jane Levy. Dylan Minnette is a little too earnest, his character feeling more like he belongs in a John Hughes movie. But the movie calls for extremely personal, physical work from these two, as well as Daniel Zovatto, the most unrepentant of the three. The house is practically a character unto itself, feeling decrepit and real. Alvarez has a keen sense for what rattles an audience, and this is a great picture to see in the theater. It's claustrophobic and in your face.

The film owes a real debt to Panic Room, as well as the 1967 Audrey Hepburn thriller, Wait Until Dark, directed by the great Terence Young (if you've never seen it, find it). I'll just say that Alvarez makes the audience's sympathies a moving target. When the tables turn, as much as you want the blind man to triumph over his invaders, they're not stock bad guys, especially Levy. In the second half, you'll find there's more than one kitchen sink in play, and I found my allegiances in a fair amount of flux. Maybe I had some issues, but let's keep it spoiler-free.

When they bring the check, you've really got to hand it to Alvarez for delivering a super taut, economical premise with pretty tight lug nuts. Made for about $10 million, its dog-days box office is at $67 million so far. That's why you gotta love a good thriller.

So Long, Summer: 2016 Fall & Winter Movie Preview

A lot of us are doing Back to School shopping, so like it or not, summer is drawing to a close.

Suicide Squad just overcame a critical keel-hauling with box office gold, and it feels like that’s going to pretty much act as the capstone on the summer movie-going season. Latecomers Sausage Party, Pete’s Dragon, Hell or High Water and Hands of Stone could all see some sleeper success, while Ben-Hur is destined for disaster.

So what’s next? Looking ahead to the fall and winter months, I have to say, it doesn’t exactly look like the most awe-inspiring autumn, let alone Christmas. Unquestionably, films are going to surface we didn’t see coming, but as it stands now, there’s less than ten films that look cool enough to lure me into the theater. It’s a surprisingly short list this year.

The Magnificent Seven  (9/23) – Most remakes are just a cash-grab, but this 21^st Century Tombstone from Antoine Fuqua feels like the real McCoy, and seems likely to continue Chris Pratt’s winning streak. Note that these are all different characters than we saw in the Steve McQueen, Yul Brynner classic.

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children (9/30) – This feels like the return of the real Tim Burton – a surreal tale of misfits and outcasts. It’s sure coming out at the right time of the year.

Birth of a Nation (10/07) – by all accounts, Nate Parker’s Sundance triumph about slavery in the South is the film of the moment and seems destined to win Best Picture. But it’s still really early and Toronto hasn’t even happened yet. But as of now, Birth is the front-runner.

The Girl on the Train (10/07) – This Emily Blunt mystery was a massive best-seller and has already been tagged as this years’ Gone Girl. Fall’s a great time for a smart, moody thriller, and Blunt’s been picking ‘em really well.

Doctor Strange (11/04) – I love all the ingredients here. The Marvel Universe, I loved the comic, Cumberbatch is awesome – but that first trailer is a little too Inception lite, and we need a bigger sense of the supernatural forces at play here. Hopefully a stupendous trailer’s just around the corner. Marvel so rarely stumbles, and I want this one to be worthy.

Arrival (11/11) – Denis Villeneuve’s first sci-fi film before embarking on Blade Runner 2? Count me as interested! Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner. Villeneuve is an astonishing talent, so here’s hoping this doesn’t end up being The Invasion. 

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (11/18) – Harry Potter is back in bookstores again, and the winter months have always been very welcoming to J.K. Rowling’s wizarding world. Here’s to new characters and environments agreeing with audiences.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (12/16) – Reshoots be damned, this is the Mt. Everest of the holiday season. Disney is banking on December lightning striking twice, and director Gareth Edwards could sure use some love. It’s hard to imagine anything dampening my enthusiasm for this unique Dirty Dozen take on that galaxy far, far away. Plus, two words: Darth Vader.

Passengers (12/21) – More sci-fi, from John Spaihts' 2007 Black List story, tagged as one of the best unproduced scripts of the year. Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt star as two voyagers on an interstellar colony ship. Hundreds of travelers are in suspended animation for a journey lasting over a century. When Pratt somehow wakes up early, he decides to thaw out a companion, rather than endure a lifetime of solitude. Morten Tyldum (The Imitation Game) directs.

That's about it! I'm sure there will be other standouts yet to emerge, but from where I'm sitting here in August, these are the ones I'm most intrigued by.

Suicide Squad Review Wreckage

Well, I’m sure that the phones are ringing off the hook at Warner Bros. today – and pretty much not in a good way.

The reviews for Suicide Squad are about exactly the opposite from what everyone hoped. When a consistent theme of “Not as bad as last years’ Fantastic Four” begins to emerge, you know you’re in trouble.  They’re currently 33% Rotten over on Rotten Tomatoes, and it sounds like they continued the too-dark muddy nature that was a source of so many of the critiques of Batman v Superman. That the first part of the film rocks hard, but then quickly devolves into tame and muddlesome predictability. Everyone consistently praises the cast, especially Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, in what sounds like a completely star-making turn. But shockingly, Jared Leto’s highly anticipated Joker is evidently barely in the film. Sounding like a lot of bad decisions were made in terms of focus and editing, and that the vibe seems to be that director David Ayer took a good swing, but that studio meddling delivered a hamstrung product that pulls its punches. It will be interesting to see how all this translates into weekend box office. Can they even land first place, or will Jason Bourne continue to dominate? A huge factor is the Olympics, and if audiences decide to stay home and watch those this weekend and skip “Skwad,” it could be a killing blow for the picture. Man, DC just can’t seem to catch a break. Stay tuned.

The Needful Nostalgia of Stranger Things

By now, if you've got Netflix, you've likely already binged your way through all 8 episodes of Stranger Things, one of the few entertainment bright spots of the summer. Released with almost no advance word, the show caught fire instantly and became The must-watch show of the season.

 

In case you've been away, Stranger Things is a delirious fusion of all things Eighties, a frenzied and faithful story of childhood friends in peril that sprays gleeful reference shrapnel invoking the works of Steven Spielberg and Stephen King. E.T., Poltergeist, Stand by Me, Firestarter, The Goonies - you'll get whiplash counting the nods and callbacks. The opening credits echo the font of every King book jacket, backed by a synthesizer score that screams John Carpenter. Even the poster art (from Kyle Lambert) is meant to evoke the legendary style of Drew Struzan, he of the iconic Star Wars and Indiana Jones one-sheets. For anyone who grew up loving eighties movies, Stranger Things is a heady trip back in the time machine. Set in 1983, it looks, smells and feels like a product of that simpler, pre-internet time. Part of the show's appeal has undoubtedly been the interactive fun of connecting the pop cultural dots, and bathing in a warm pool of nostalgia for a genre of film we kind of take for granted now.

 

But Stranger Things isn't just a magic act, and it's definitely not paint-by-numbers. Created and directed by The Duffer Brothers (Matt and Ross), Stranger Things is the story of a lazy town next to a government research lab that's rocked by the disappearance of a small boy under disturbing circumstances - and his friends' determined quest to somehow find him.

 

Just watch that pilot, and if you aren't immediately all kinds of hooked, I'll be surprised. I may even sick a Demogorgon on you. Eighties stalwarts Winona Ryder and Matthew Modine are the most familiar faces, both doing excellent work. As the town Sheriff, David Harbour is a new face to me, but he won't stay unfamiliar long, as he's fantastic here. A damaged, near derelict sleepwalker straight out of Carpenter or Dean Koontz.

 

But it's the young cast of friends that deserve a huge amount of credit for Stranger Things' success. Led by Finn Wolfhard (right?), Noah Schnapp, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLoughlin, Charlie Heaton and Natalia Dyer do an amazing job of creating believable and unforced energy in their roles and keep you rooting for them every step of the way. But it's Millie Bobby Brown as "Eleven," who's going to come out of this thing in a major way. It's a star-making performance and she becomes a galvanizing force for this band of D&D loyalists in a way you won't soon forget.

 

With so much nostalgic hat-tipping, it may be tempting for some to view Stranger Things with a cynical lens. But viewers have embraced this show like a beer on a hot afternoon, and I gotta say I just enjoyed the hell out of my time in Hawkins, Indiana, and I can't wait to see where the Duffer Brothers take us next.