10 Cloverfield Lane ****
Short Take: A woman fleeing from a relationship suffers a car wreck and wakes up in a prepper’s underground bunker in an allegedly post-apocalyptic world.
REEL TAKE: Whether you saw 2008’s ‘found footage’ monster movie Cloverfield should hold no bearing on whether or not you choose to see 10 Cloverfield Lane. For that matter, if you did see Cloverfield, whether you liked it or hated it shouldn’t have any bearing on this film either. The two films share producer J.J. Abrams in common and very little else. My limited knowledge on the background of this film is that its working title was The Cellar when it came to Abrams’ Bad Robot Productions. When they started doing rewrites on it, they thought it shared a similar feel to Cloverfield and decided to manufacture a tie-in then.
At the beginning 10 Cloverfield Lane we meet Michelle (Mary Elizabeth Winstead, The Spectacular Now). She’s hurriedly packing her bags. Just before she leaves we see that she’s left an engagement ring and house keys behind. As she drives through the night her phone rings. We see the name Ben on the display and hear a man’s voice pleading with her, telling her that “running away isn’t going to fix anything. Come back.” This is all the background we have on Michelle before she is sideswiped and sent rolling down an embankment.
When Michelle comes to, she’s in an underground bunker belonging to a doomsday prepper named Howard (John Goodman), and apparently doomsday has come. Howard explains that there’s been an attack, “… a big one. Maybe chemical, maybe nuclear. It could be the Ruskies or maybe the Martians.” Joining them in subterranean lair is Emmett (John Gallagher Jr., Short Term 12), a local handyman who helped Howard build the bunker, though he doesn’t seem to be quite as welcome as Michelle is.
And so sets into motion a very confined game of cat and mouse. Did Howard save her, or is she his captive? Was there an apocalyptic event or is the prepper a delusional, paranoid wack-a-doodle? Is Howard a degenerate, conspiracy theorist, or actually a good guy? 10 Cloverfield Lane keeps you guessing throughout. First time director Dan Trachtenburg does a great job building tension and then easing off the intensity and infusing the story with dark humor. Likewise Bear McCreary’s atmospheric score builds to appropriate plot point crescendos and is then supplanted by oldies on Howard’s jukebox including a very tongue in cheek, “I Think We’re Alone Now.”
Winstead is a solid lead. She’s accessible, likeable and very believable; she’s scared but possesses hidden strength. Gallagher, who I don’t think I’ve ever seen in anything prior to this, is very at ease in his role. He’s a good buffer for the film’s darker edges. Goodman gives his best performance in years, adding perhaps even more depth than the film demands, which is curious considering how little we really know about him.
Ultimately 10 Cloverfield Lane is a tight thriller. The joy of this film is in simply watching it unfold. It’s not a great film by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s a lot of fun. If you liked the Twilight Zone or Night Gallery TV series you’ll likely enjoy 10 Cloverfield Lane.
Rated PG-13 for thematic for material including frightening sequences of threat with some violence, and brief language.
Review by Michelle Keenan
Allegiant – Part 1 **1/2
Short Take: The beginning of the last installment of the Divergent series turns out to be more of the same which, unless you are a die-hard fan, is not good.
REEL TAKE: There once was a time, in my younger days, when I simply devoured movies. Good, bad, or indifferent, it really didn’t matter. I don’t think I missed a single movie during the 1970s. At least it seemed that way.
Now, things are different. Now there are many movies that I do not see even if I don’t have to review them. This would have been one of them but I wound up reviewing it anyway. Why? Read on.
There was another time, not that long ago, that I read a number of Young Adult books in order to keep pace with my daughter (and to keep tabs on just what it was she was reading). Well, she’s moved on and so have I but since I’ve seen the earlier installments in this series, I may as well see this one through.
For those of you who haven’t seen the earlier installments, The Divergent Series, like The Hunger Games, is set in a dystopian future focusing on the now walled city of Chicago. It revolves around Beatrice ‘Tris’ Prior (Shailene Woodley) and Tobias ‘Four’ Eaton (Theo James).
In the first film, Divergent, Tris discovers that she cannot be fitted into one of four societal classes because of her DNA. She joins an underground group of people with similar backgrounds (Divergents). There she becomes attached to one of her underground instructors named Four (Theo James). In the sequel Insurgent a secret box that may contain the secret of the Divergents’ origin is found which only a Divergent can open. After much action and mayhem Tris opens the box and discovers that there’s a world outside the walled city of Chicago. She and Four plan to go out to explore it.
The current film, Allegiant, like Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the Twilight series, and the last Hunger Games installment, has been turned into a two part affair making a slow moving and seriously overplotted saga even more so. This time around Tris seeks to learn more about her genetic heritage while Four and his powerful mother (Naomi Watts) clash over starting a class war. After much action and mayhem…well, you get the picture.
What would have been a great Outer Limits episode has been hyper-extended into a two hour plus movie marathon that only die hard fans or reviewers seem destined to finish. The domestic box office returns for each successive installment have been getting smaller and smaller. Thank goodness (from Summit Entertainment’s viewpoint) for the overseas markets where the films have been doing better.
Despite a strong supporting cast that features Jeff Daniels, Olivia Spencer, Janet McTeer, and Ashley Judd, Allegiant suffers from too much plot that is undeveloped, and poorly developed characters aside from the two leads (despite 4 screenwriters). There are extended action sequences but they just grow tiresome after awhile. I was already forgetting the film before it was over which is not a good thing. I’m really looking forward to the final installment Ascendant (NOT!)
Rated PG-13 for action violence, thematic material, and partial nudity.
Review by Chip Kaufmann
Batman v. Superman ***1/2
Short Take: The good news is that this movie is better than its ponderous, pretentious predecessor Man of Steel. The bad news is…just barely.
Reel Take: Although I should have known better, I was hoping that for Batman v. Superman “visionary” director Zack Snyder would have abandoned the “shoot a gnat with an elephant gun” approach that absolutely ruined Man of Steel. How silly of me.
The updating of the death of Bruce Wayne’s parents (1981’s Excalibur is shown on a theatre marquee), shot in super serious slow motion, sets the tone right away. Cut to the present where Superman (Henry Cavill) is seen rescuing Lois Lane (Amy Adams) from African terrorists only to be condemned in the press and by Congress for doing it without official authorization.
Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) is now an angry approaching middle age executive whose Batman brands criminals after he captures them. He holds Superman responsible for all of the people killed at the end of Man of Steel. He wants payback and is aided in his quest by a woefully underused Jeremy Irons as family retainer Alfred.
Add to the mix Jesse Eisenberg’s Lex Luthor, played here as a demented Mark Zuckerberg. He’s clever but not at all campy the way previous incarnations Gene Hackman and Kevin Spacey were. He is actually far more frightening and disturbing than the Kryptonian monster released by him for the film’s finale.
An additional wrinkle is added by Holly Hunter as a sincere but misguided senator who wants to put Superman under government control. Too late does she realize that she has been a tool of Lex Luthor who has his own plans for the Man of Steel as well as for Batman.
Diane Lane is back as Ma Kent and she plays a key part in the proceedings. The same can be said for Kevin Costner and Michael Shannon although they only have small cameos. This way Snyder links this movie with the first one. There is a new mythology being created and that requires one more character.
Gal Gadot is Diana Prince who fans know is Wonder Woman but she doesn’t get to be her until the last 30 minutes of the film which is a titanic battle between the 3 superheroes and an “unkillable” Kryptonian Goliath created by Luthor. She certainly makes her presence felt. No spoilers here, but I’ll bet you can guess the outcome.
But don’t forget the title of the film is Batman v. Superman. Before the titanic final battle there is what should have been the final titanic battle between B & S. It is B.S. because realistically this should take all of 30 seconds but Batman uses tiny amounts of kryptonite to weaken Superman just enough to kill 20 minutes of running time. Then the monster arrives followed by a third and final ending which has to be seen to be disbelieved.
At 2 1/2 hours Batman v. Superman is just way… too… long… and so deadly serious despite Eisenberg’s best attempts to lighten things up (villains are always the best part of these movies). Affleck & Cavill do their best early Katherine Hepburn impressions by running the gamut of emotions from A to B. It was good to see Holly Hunter on screen again but there wasn’t enough of her.
The most troubling aspect of these superhero movies (the DCs in particular) is how deadly serious the actors, writers, and directors take them. This film in particular has more in common with Dostoyevsky than DC Comics. Is it any wonder that with comic book material like this being treated with such solemnity that such serious considerations as a political primary have become a comic book affair? That’s a question that is increasingly going to be asked and I’m afraid we already know the answer.
Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action throughout and for sensuality.
Review by Chip Kaufmann
Hello, My Name Is Doris ***1/2
Short Take: The kind-hearted but tonally inconsistent story of an eccentric 60-something spinster and her crush on a young co-worker.
REEL TAKE: At the start of Hello, My Name is Doris, our titular character (Sally Field) finds herself relieved of her longtime care taker duties when her elderly mother dies. But years of putting her own life on hold have taken their toll. Doris is a lonely, socially awkward eccentric 60-something spinster with hoarding tendencies and touches of mental instability.
After a ‘meet cute’ moment in an elevator, she develops a mad crush on John Freemont (Max Greenfield from TV’s The New Girl), a handsome young co-worker half her age. Fueled by the encouragement of a self help guru (Peter Gallagher) and aided in the art of stalking on social media by her best friend’s 13 year old granddaughter, Doris decides to pursue the object of her affection. Against all odds John and Doris form an unlikely friendship which only jettisons Doris’s romantic fixation. Also against all odds, Doris becomes a hit with John’s hipster friends, even landing an album cover for John’s favorite electronic band. Field and Greenfeld share a wonderful chemistry and make the most of it.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t quite make peace with the tonal inequities of the film. Quirkiness, vintage bag lady couture and retro cat eye glasses add colorful layers to Doris, but they can’t mask mental illness or amend for bad behavior. And while much of what happens is supposed to make us laugh, the film never quite makes it as a comedy and it never delves deeply enough to be something else.
There is a surprisingly poignant scene, during a hoarding intervention, where Doris lashes out at her brother (a terribly underutilized Stephen Root), his horrid wife and a psychologist. The scene speaks to so much more [about Doris and the story] that it made me wonder if perhaps the May December romance should be the sub story and this the primary focus.
In spite of inconsistencies and underdeveloped elements of the story, what really keeps the movie going is its kind spirit. Director and co-writer Michael Showalter (The Baxter) handles the material with sweet humanity and somehow maintains tenderness even in the film’s most cringe-inducing moments. The film pokes a bit of fun at Millennial hipsters (who wouldn’t), but that’s as cruel as it gets.
Sally Field clearly relished the opportunity to play such a unique role and I’m glad for her. Max Greenfield is sure to be doing more big screen gigs with this successful foray. Tyne Daly is a hoot as Doris’s best friend Roz, and I’d like to have seen more of her in the film.
At the end of the day Hello, My Name Is Doris is an oddity, but its heart is in the right place, just like Doris.
Rated R for language.
Review by Michelle Keenan
My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 **
Short Take: The Portokalos family reunites for another Big Fat Greek Wedding.
REEL TAKE: Some stories are meant to be a multi-series franchise – Harry Potter, Star Wars, The Hunger Games. Others, not so much. I thought the best example of this was last year’s sequel to The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, but that was until I saw My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2. It is hands down one of the worst sequels of all time, and it’s completely unnecessary.
In 2002 Nia Vardalos charmed audiences with her semi-autobiographical story of an ugly duckling in a big Greek family who turns into a beautiful swan and falls in love with handsome [but not Greek] Adonis. If memory serves, Vardalos tried to follow-up the meteoric success and popularity of the film with a short-lived sitcom on network television. That should have told her something.
Media hype in the weeks leading up to the sequel’s release centered around why it took so long. I had not realized this was something we had all been waiting for these last fourteen years. Still, fourteen years is a long time for a sequel, so there was a tiny part of me that thought maybe, just maybe, Vardalos had waited until she had some great, bright new material. This was not the case.
According to the story, seventeen years have passed. Toula (Vardalos) is married to Ian (John Corbett). They have a teenage daughter named Paris (Elena Kampouris), who is [of course] mortified by her mother’s family. They live next door to Toula’s parents Maria (Lainie Kazan) and Gus (Michael Constantine). Gus is still spouting the exact same Greek drivel that he did in the first movie (when it was funny), “You need to meet Greek boy and make babies. Give me a word, any word and I’ll give you the Greek root,” and on and on. Even Maria is sick of it. So, when Gus accidentally finds out that the priest who married them never signed the marriage certificate, it turns out they’ve been living in sin for fifty years. Maria may actually have an out, but then of course the title of the movie is a big give away. Oh the plot twists and suspense!
Vardalos was able to bring everyone back for the sequel including the hilarious Andrea Martin as Aunt Voula. The good hearted camaraderie is there, but the jokes are tired, the romance has fizzled and the baklava is stale. Waking Ned Divine director Kirk Jones does nothing to help and in fact may have made things worse.
My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 is grounds for annulment.
Rated PG-13 for some suggestive material.
Review by Michelle Keenan
Zootopia ****1/2
Short Take: Disney does it again with this surprisingly adult children’s film about animal life in the big city as a small country rabbit tries to become a metropolitan police officer.
REEL TAKE: Don’t let the adult adjective keep you from taking your children from seeing Zootopia. Everyone of every age should this fascinating twist on the old “country boy makes good in the big city” saga. In this case it’s a rabbit and it’s not a guy but a female bunny trying to make the big time and surrounding her story is a much larger one of racial tolerance and a celebration of diversity.
Judy Hopps dreams of leaving her country vegetable stand and her overprotective parents behind as she goes to the big city of Zootopia where beasts of all shapes and sizes live in harmony. Her goal is to become a police officer. After rigorous training which she passes (in fact she’s first in her class at the Academy), she is assigned traffic duty as a meter maid because everyone knows cute little bunnies can’t be real police officers. While writing traffic tickets she helps out a fox and his son only to discover that she has been conned.
This actually works out to her advantage as it puts her on the case of a missing individual (an otter) despite being forbidden by the Chief of Police (an ox) from doing anything about it. Determined to prove herself and enlisting the aid of the reluctant fox (she has something on him), they set out to find the otter and uncover a vast conspiracy where predators are suddenly reverting to savagery which creates antagonism, mistrust, and discord among the population (sound familiar?).
The mayor of the city (a lion) is implicated and the vice mayor (a sheep) takes over and orders a crackdown on all predators in the city. Fear and anger are now the prevailing emotions and those seeking permanent power use the unrest to their political advantage. Can Officer Hopps and Nick Wilde (the fox) sort things out and restore balance to the city? It’s a Disney movie so you already know the answer but how the solution is arrived at and then achieved makes for a fascinating, surprisingly sophisticated ride.
Although conceived and created before the current Primary season, it’s almost impossible not to see parallels between what is currently unfolding in that arena and to one candidate in particular although the animal that best fits the description of that candidate is the last one you would pick. But that’s the beauty of Zootopia. Things are not what they seem on the surface which teaches an inherent lesson on how we view things and the prejudices we unconsciously express concerning individual types and what they should be doing.
Although I did not see the 3-D version, the visuals here are creative, colorful, and eye popping when the occasion calls for it and really don’t need the 3-D effect unless you just want to shell out the extra cash. The vocal performances are uniformly fine with Ginnifer Goodwin & Jason Bateman (as rabbit & fox) perfectly suited to their animated characters. Able support comes from Idris Elba as the ox police chief, J.K. Simmons as the lion mayor, and Octavia Spencer as the wife of the missing otter.
As with the best Disney animated offerings from Snow White through Cinderella and The Little Mermaid to more recent non-traditional animated movies like Tangled, Zootopia can be viewed over and over again and will readily stand the test of time. Very few movies animated or otherwise can make that claim.
Rated PG for thematic elements, rude humor, and action.
Review by Chip Kaufmann