THE WAY BACK (2020)

Rated: R

STARS: Ben Affleck, Al Madrigal, Janina Gavankar, John Aylward
DIRECTOR:  Gavin O'Connor
GENRE: Drama

First off, I should tell you that the trailers for The Way Back are misleading. They make you think it's a story about personal redemption and triumph over adversity and addiction, against the backdrop of a young sports team on the rise. Former star basketball player, Jack Cunningham (Ben Affleck), takes over the coaching duties for the current sad sack team at his Catholic high school alma mater, and turns the team into a winner. In the process, he supposedly beats his own demons. There's no suspense about where the team aspect of the movie is headed, because this is an obvious "feelgood" flick. Or so you would think.

But the personal redemption aspect of it is long in coming and short on realization. In between there is basketball. And more basketball. This is basketball movie. So if you're not a fan, there really isn't going to be much here for you.

Jack has been separated from his wife (Janina Gavankar ) for about a year. We learn that the couple has suffered a tremendous personal loss, and their mutual grief has driven them apart. So Jack drinks. And drinks. If you don't like ubiquitous scenes of a guy chugging down the beers and swilling vodka straight from the bottle, there isn't going to be much here for you.

When the headmaster of his high school alma mater (John Aylward) asks Jack to take over the coaching duties for their currently crappy basketball team, he is reluctant at first. But he takes the job. His coaching style is to pull no punches with his kids-a collection of mostly goof-off stereotypes of young jocks--and to show them exactly where their weaknesses are. This is done through a lot of cussing.The F-bombs fly fast and furious, like balls bombarding the basket during practice. If you're not a fan of the F-word and similar colorful language...uh...there isn't going to be much here for you.

Jack meets with his estranged wife a couple times, and she tells him she has a boyfriend. This stings, because he clearly regrets their breakup. I could see a  a lot of potential to develop the story of their relationship beyond surface level, but it doesn't happen. It feels like maybe this was going to be a longer movie originally, but most of the substance got cut to make way for...more dramatic scenes of basketball!--and Jack's boys turning their fortunes around. Because the team loves being coached by a raging alcoholic who cusses like an entire ship of sailors! And the film accepts as benign the main thing that is wrong with sports on any level today: the obsession with winning at all costs. 

Damn, there must be something that this reviewer liked about the film, right? I liked the foul language. (No harm, no foul!) There's something perversely ironic--and funny--about a coach at a Catholic high school letting the F-bombs fly, causing the administrative figures at the school to cringe. In fact, it's played for laughs. But if that's not your sense of humor, there isn't going to be... 

Grade:  C-

JILL'S TAKE

Fuck it! That's what I have to say about this movie. My main reason for pushing Tim to see The Way Back was to find out if (often wooden) Ben Affleck would do a more convincing acting job portraying an alcoholic—since he is one. He did lie convincingly. And he was convincingly self-centered like alkies tend to be. But his acting was basically wooden.

This was one helluva schizophrenic film. If I had to pitch the idea to a production company, I'd say it's "Lost Weekend meets Hoosiers." Or "Leaving Las Vegas meets White Men Can't Jump." (I would sincerely hope they'd turn me down.

There were so many things that bugged me about this movie but I'll only focus on two. First, we see a seriously addicted alcoholic going to the same bar every night and passing out. Drinking while driving. Drinking at work. Even drinking in the shower. But once he gets involved with coaching, he suddenly decides not to frequent this same bar anymore. Like sobriety is a snap decision? (Tell that to anybody who attends AA meetings.)

The second thing that pissed me off was all the people who didn't need to be in this story. I didn't know who half of them were. Nor did I care. But if you want to see a chunky Ben Affleck--let's hope some of that was padding--go see The Way Back. Otherwise, stay home.

Grade: D

THE GLASS CASTLE (2017)

Rated: PG-13

STARS: Woody Harrelson, Brie Larson, Naomi Watts, Ella Anderson, Max Greenfield
DIRECTOR: Destin Daniel Cretton
GENRE: Drama

He did a lot of shitty things, but he had his moments. If I had to pick one quote from the movie to sum up Woody Harrelson's character in The Glass Castle, it would be that one. Harrelson takes on the persona of Rex Walls, who was either the most free-spirited drunk, or the drunkest free spirit you'd ever be likely to meet.

Director Destin Daniel Cretton takes on a whopper of a challenge in putting together the screen adaptation of Jeanette Walls' best-selling memoir about growing up in a dysfunctional family with a capital "D."

The film opens in 1989, where we meet the adult Jeanette Walls (Brie Larson), a successful gossip columnist for New York Magazine. Her story is told in flashbacks that jump around a lot and can be confusing, but what film have I ever seen that employs this technique wasn't confusing?  You've gotta be up to the challenge if you're going to be a reviewer, because few films are strictly linear anymore. (You don't play this game in short pants, even though most of the attendees in the theater were wearing them!)

Ms.Walls may be the shining example of survival and triumph in overcoming, along with her three siblings, one of the crappiest childhoods anyone would never ask for. Rex Walls, her dad, could never hold down a job and subjected his family to a nomadic lifestyle in poverty-stricken conditions, as he was usually staying one step ahead of the law. He was a raging alcoholic who would go on benders and leave his family neglected and without food for days at a time. His wife, Rose Marie (NaomiWatts), a self absorbed hippie-flippy type who fancied herself as a talented painter, was his enabler. Where the "he had his moments" part came in was that Rex Walls tried to instill in his children an extraordinary sense of independence and self-reliance. In other words, he gave them what they needed to survive HIM. As you will see in the end, it took.

In one sense, I see The Glass Castle as a series of scenes, taut and dramatic, many of which are nothing short of brilliant--each trying to outdo the other on the wow factor scale. The best of them is when dad challenges the adult Jeanette's fiancee (Max Greenfield) to an arm wrestling match. The players are all in on this one--in sports terminology you would say they left it all on the field. The scene transcends into something truly primal. It's worth the price of admission.

Woody Harrrelson, who in real life is a really good guy with a good heart, has nonetheless never shied away from playing some really scary, even sinister types. In acting your alter-ego gets to take over, and Harrelson has taken good advantage of those opportunities. Naomi Watts may be the most versatile of the actresses we see all the time in seemingly everything. They are buoyed by a fine cast of young thespians, most notably Ella Anderson as the young Jeanette.

The Glass Castle is a tad over two hours long, but don't vault out of your seat the moment the closing credits begin to roll, because you get to meet the real Rex Walls and family. Fascinating. That most of his kids still had a soft spot in their hearts for the guy after his passing is a testament to something.

Stockholm Syndrome is my guess.

Grade:  A

JILL'S TAKE

I know it's early yet, and there are bound to be some great performances coming out of Hollywood this year, but my money's on Woody to win an Oscar. It's a real challenge to play such an unlikable character -- and make him sympathetic. Despite Rex Walls' obvious flaws as a father, his spirit is sometimes infectious. Until it isn't anymore.

Harrelson's acting credits began as a likable drunk on the hit TV series "Cheers" and has certainly progressed dramatically since then. I thought it was a wise choice on the director's part to give Woody a toupee to wear. Not only did it make him more closely resemble the real Rex Walls, it made me forget him as a bald psychopathic murderer in the 1994 classic Natural Born Killers.

The Glass Castle was, for me, a gasp-a-minute film. The twists and unexpected turns kept me on the edge of my seat, eyes riveted on the screen. For a family to live in such squalor and actually survive is impressive. More impressive still is the fact that Jeanette Walls, even as a child (played brilliantly by Ella Anderson), was able not only to escape but to become successful. And I loved the irony that she was the closest child to her broken down dad.

The sets, the costumes, the score (subtle as it was) were all authentic as hell. And I have to really struggle to come up with a negative about this impactful film. But here is my miniscule criticism. As the end credits rolled and we were given cameos of the real cast of characters, I felt it went on too long and interrupted what I wanted to be left with after viewing the movie. A few still photographs would've been just as effective. That being said, run don't walk to the nearest theater where this cinematic gem is being shown....

Grade: A +

COLOSSAL (2017)

Let's say you're a rageaholic, or a raging alcoholic--or some other out of control type. You might not even be aware of the damage your behavior may be doing to innocent lives. And with that I've given you a big one-up on everyone else who may be quite clueless themselves as to the deeper meanings behind Colossal--the quirkiest and most thought provoking film to come down the pike since Alejandro Inarritu's Birdman. Of course, that's just one take on it. You may come away with something different. That's the beauty of this Beast. It will make you scratch your head and use your...noodle! (Some folks don't want that--they want it all spelled out for them.)

Anne Hathaway (who also produced the film, so she's in it up to her sweet derriere ) plays Gloria--a kooky chick with apparent memory problems stemming from her being drunk a lot. She lives with her boyfriend, Tim (Dan Stevens), in his New York apartment...but not for long. As the film opens, he is in the process of kicking her aforementioned ass to the curb. He's fed up with her ongoing bullshit. She can't believe it. She doesn't think she's that bad (they never do). 

She lands back in her upstate hometown, squatting in her parents' abandoned house. On the way there she runs into her old childhood friend, Oscar (Jason Sudeikis), who operates a local bar. He obligingly takes her on as a waitress. They sit around after hours and drink, which seems to suit Gloria just fine. Then comes a BIG twist--as big as when the space invaders appear out of nowhere in Cowboys And Aliens. A gigantic kaiju monster shows up in Seoul, South Korea and begins doing what all Godzilla-esque creatures do over in Tokyo, and that is to stomp around (innocently enough in its brain, you always get the feeling) knock down a few buildings and terrorize the populace. (Cue Carol King singing "I feel the earth...move... under my feet...")  And while it's not Japan, the people of Seoul know the drill...run for your lives!!! These scenes of terrified folk scurrying thither and yon may be the most believable thing in the movie--if you're going to take everything at face value. But you don't want to do that.

Gloria, sleeping it off in the local park, wakes and watches live news reports of the monster on her mobile device. Then the strangest thing. She discovers that when she raises her arm, the monster raises its arm. Any movements she makes, it follows in sync. She's doing a Howdy Doody number on a colossal creature thousands of miles away! Not only that, but when Oscar shows up at the park, there appears a humongous robot counterpart to the monster that begins following his every move! The monster and the robot become giant projections of Gloria and Oscar. This is where it starts getting real good! And this is where I'll leave you hangin.'  Except to say, in philosophical terms, the micro is the macro. 

Wait...here's a little more. There are flashback scenes to when Oscar and Gloria were kids together that give some plausible explanation as to why they are able to do what they are doing (as plausible as it gets in Colossal, anyway!)    

If you think in terms of metaphor, it's easy to come up with shades and shards of meaning. The butterfly effect. Personal responsibility. The seemingly insignificant (to us) things we do can have far-reaching consequences--creating monstrous bugaboos on the scale of global warming, for one.  

Approaching the Gloria and Goliath climactic scene, I was getting an adrenaline rush that evoked the first time I saw Rocky. That's a film I've viewed multiple times, and I will see Colossal again--you bet!  ( Will prolly buy it when it comes out on DVD.)

This is why I go to the movies. To be swept into another world.  Even one as off the wall as this. There is plenty of precedent for this kind of whimsy. We've rubbed elbows with the Mad Hatter...defied gravity with Uncle Albert (how stoned was that guy?)...and would have gladly loaned E.T. our smart phone--if they had been invented in 1982--and eavesdropped on his loooong distance call. 

As Bill Murray once said: It could happen! 

Grade:  A

JILL'S TAKE

I knew there was a good reason I left Tucson for California: you Arizonans are crazy! Only a crazy person would sit through this sci-fi monster movie twice.... As you must know by now, I want my films "all spelled out." (Thanks, Tim.) And spelled out Colossal isn't. I did leave the theater scratching my head. But it was due to the pounding in my brain from so many cinematic inconsistencies. I was hoping Tim might explain why these alcohol-induced monsters appeared in Seoul rather than in the aforementioned park? And why, if they represented the monster in all of us who over indulge, they looked so unlike the people whose rage created them? (The art director must have been Korean.) 

But I must admit I never got bored. And among the myriad points the script kept trying to make, I did love the idea that Jason Sudeikis' character – trapped in a town with nothing to do but drink and be a nobody-- got totally hooked on his monster's power. (He could finally "be somebody.") This made me think of all the serial killers who feel a rush every time they pull the trigger. It didn't, however, save this film from being a mish-mash of too many metaphors.

There have been many films that dwell on the evils of drink (Lost Weekend, Leaving Las Vegas, 28 Days) but they all have one point to make: too much alcohol can destroy you both literally and psychologically. Alas, Colossal gets overloaded with messages about the monsters in all of us who abuse booze. But too much thinking about drinking can make a very confusing movie....

Grade: C+

THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN (2016)

Rated:  R

STARS: Emily Blunt, Justin Theroux, Rebecca Ferguson, Luke Evans, Haley Bennett, Edgar Ramirez
DIRECTOR: Tate Taylor
GENRE: Thriller

Watching a film adaptation of a book you've read is different than if you were totally unfamiliar with the story. Since you know all the plot elements, you pretty much are just looking to see how true the film is to the source material. We can say that The Girl On The Train, starring Emily Blunt, is a lot more faithful to the best-selling book by Paula Hawkins than any of the married characters in the story are to each other, with a couple of notable exceptions.

Rachel  is a lush of the first magnitude. A furtive alcoholic who blacks out and can't remember a thing about what she did the night before. In the book she's overweight and no longer terribly attractive. In the movie she's Emily Blunt. So there's the first change. They do a pretty good job of making her look haggard and stressed out, but she's still Emily Blunt. So who was going to put more butts in the seats--Melissa McCarthy or Ms. Blunt? The bottom line is still king.

Rachel drinks because of her divorce from Tom (Justin Theroux), who is now happily married to Anna (Rebecca Ferguson). She got fired from her job due to her drinking, but rides the train everyday from the suburbs to Manhattan to keep up the appearance of still being gainfully employed. (In the book it's London--that's the second notable change.) Along the route Rachel passes a house where a happy looking couple are frequently observed getting frisky on their back balcony. She entertains fantasies about who they are and what they are like. One day while riding by she sees the woman in the arms of another man. Rachel is shocked and disillusioned. Then the woman, whose name is Megan (Haley Bennett), disappears. There is a police investigation. Megan's husband, Scott (Luke Evans), becomes a suspect. But who was the other man Rachel saw Megan with on the balcony? She's going to get to the bottom of it (before she bottoms out herself). It's the stuff that taut thrillers are made of. 

Emily Blunt, surrounded by a cast of relative unknowns, turns in a gritty performance--one of her best. But as The Girl On The Train speeds toward its gotcha conclusion, much of the nuance of the characters in the novel is left at the station. 

Grade:  B 

JILL'S TAKE

From my perspective, the best thing about The Girl On The Train is Tim's review. Well done, Timoteo! There's always a danger of turning off an audience when the main character is so unlikable. And Emily Blunt's character is definitely not someone you'd want to befriend. Until the very end when the wife of her ex husband's boss, played by Lisa Kudrow of "Friends" fame, reveals a shocking truth.

Quite honestly, I went to this film with the wrong attitude, convinced that it would never be as good as the book. And I was right. That's the second danger with making a movie from a hit novel. Author Paula Hawkins' best seller was such a literary blockbuster that expectations about the movie version were unrealistically high. Even though screenwriter, Erin Cressida Wilson, wrote one of my all-time spooky film favorites (Secretary with James Spader and Maggie Gyllenhaal), many of the scenes in this thriller dragged on endlessly.

As I watched the final credits roll, I at least felt a frisson of recognition when I realized that the actor who played Emily Blunt's ex, Justin Theroux, is the current husband of Jennifer Aniston. My advice? Read the book and forget the movie...

Grade: C -

I SAW THE LIGHT (2016)

RATED: R

STARS: Tom Hiddleston, Elizabeth Olsen, Cherry Jones, Wren Schmidt, Maddie Hasson, Bradley Whitford
DIRECTOR: Marc Abraham
GENRE: Bio-pic


My standard line with Jill whenever she wants to drag me to a bio-pic of a famous person is: I know how it came out. Meaning that I, like most, am familiar with the subject's life, and don't really care to sit through a retelling that plays it loose with the facts for the sake of creating a more compelling story (which most of them do).

In I Saw The Light, director Marc Abraham has chosen to tell a LESS compelling story of the life and times of country music icon Hank Williams--playing down his subject's glory in order to hone in on his pain. In his brief tenure, Hank Williams had 35 songs that were on the country music top ten charts--eleven of them shooting to number one! "Your Cheatin' Heart," for one, has been covered by too many artists to count. But the music is given short shrift. We see Hank (Tom Hiddleston) in a few stage performances--and the music sounds good--but that's the only hint we get of the prolific creative genius the man possessed.

I understand that Abrahams is trying to tell a more personal story--of Hank Williams' struggles with the demons of alcoholism and his up and down relationships with women--but these are often the unfortunate side-effects of unfettered brilliance. There are no fist-pumping inspirational moments here, and you know ol' Hank must have had a few. Instead, I Saw The Light is an unrelenting portrait of an individual bent on self-destruction. The gloomy inevitability of it is what had me glancing at my watch about half way through.

Part of the problem is roots. Tom Hiddleston is a good enough singer, but he's British, and his attempts to master Hank Williams' trademark twang yield mixed results. That's a difficult assignment, unless you come from where Hank came from, and I'm not referring solely to geography. Fortunately for Hiddleston, his acting--the way he inhabits the character--is what shines here. It also helps that he's pretty much of a physical dead-ringer for his subject.

Elizabeth Olsen, another fine actor, plays Williams' headstrong first wife, Audrey. The performances are not the problem. The problem with I Saw The Light is that we are subjected to too much of the gloom of Hank Williams' story, and not enough of the light.

Grade:  C
  

JILL'S TAKE

Before going to see I Saw The Light,I started thinking about all the Brits who've played famous Americans: David Oyelowo as Martin Luther King in Selma, Anthony Hopkins as Richard Nixon in Nixon, Christian Bale as money mogul Michael Burry in The Big Short. And let's not forget about famous American comic book characters. Who's the latest Superman in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice? Henry Cavill. A Brit, of course!

Granted Tom Hiddleston is the spitting image of Hank Williams which works in his favor. His tall lanky build looks delicious in those hokey cowboy outfits and rakish Stetson. Hey! When you think about it, we have a living country legend, as prolific as Williams was, who's Australian: Keith Urban. (Go figure!)

But the movie was a definite letdown. I was expecting more drama, i.e. bar fights, drunken rages, a sex scandal here and there. What I got instead was a mini concert of Williams' hits. Enjoyable, yes. But those twangy tunes don't make up for a complete lack of conflict. For me, the biggest shocker came at the end of the film when I learned that Hank Williams was only 29 when he died.

I wish I had liked it more. But I'd say you're better off buying a used CD of his biggest hits. Some really marvelous lyrics there!

Grade: C -

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THE SPECTACULAR NOW (2013)

Rated: R

Stars: Miles Teller,  Shailene Woodley,  Jennifer Jason Leigh,  Kyle Chandler

Director:  James Ponsoldt

Genre: Drama/ Romance-comedy


The Spectacular Now is a small gem of a movie with a splashy title that features a soon to be prominent film star (my prediction) in the young Shailene Woodley. (You might remember her as the George Clooney character's daughter in The Descendants.) More on the talented Ms. Woodley in a moment.

Sutter Keely (Miles Teller) is a popular high school kid who drinks too much. He and his girlfriend, Cassidy, (Brie Larson) are the life of the party because they can dance and know how to booze it up (the two main attributes a high-schooler must possess to be popular.) But as we enter their lives, they are breaking up due to a misunderstanding. Or maybe they just saw each other one time in the light of day when they were both sober. So Sutter begins to imbibe even more to deal with his loss.

Not surprisingly, Sutter is a slacker in school.  He has a teacher who cares, who knows that the kid would do well if he would just apply himself. Despite it all, he's a sympathetic character (a mite reminiscent of  Benjamin Braddock in The Graduate) with whom many of us can identify because he doesn't want to grow up. 

Enter Aimee Finecky, (Shailene Woodley) a rather plain-looking and plain-spoken--read nerdy--type who becomes Sutter's rebound girl.  That's not to say that she isn't beautiful. It's the kind of beauty that radiates from within and shines from without on her exquisitely expressive face. A face that hits all the right marks at the appropriate times. So unspoiled, so real, so sincere, and yes, a bit naive--that you can't fathom why he doesn't fall head-over-heels for her right away. And that is high tribute to the talents and fresh-faced appeal of Ms. Woodley. 


But Sutter is troubled, and the key to his alcohol abuse may lie with his estranged father, whom he hasn't seen since early childhood. He is compelled to find the man--and in the process, he hopes--to find himself as well.

The appeal of The Spectacular Now is that  we have a young couple--on the verge of high school graduation and facing major changes in their lives (undertones of American Graffiti) that we can root for, despite the odds that are stacked against them. 

Grade:  B +

JILL'S TAKE

This is our tenth joint review, Tim and I. And finally, at long last, we have a spectacular conflict of opinions. I felt there were more holes in this script than Sutter Keeley's propensity for telling untruths. The most blantant being how our leading brat's rampant alcoholism is never really addressed. All it takes in this coming-of-age saga is following your sweetheart to the college of her choice. (Who needs Alcoholics Anonymous?)

As for "the teacher who cares," he is prominently featured at the beginning and then conveniently disappears by the end. And then there's Sutter's mom. The first time we meet her, she's pissed at her son for forgetting to hang up her uniform so it won't be wrinkled when she has to go to work. The second time, she's pissed at her son for showing up at her place of business and demanding to know who and where his father is. Basically, theirs is not an ideal mother/son relationship. Then—with zero preparation—she becomes a validating parent. Convenient but totally unrealistic.

I could go on...and on...and on. But as is my custom with these mini movie comments, I like to end on a positive note. There is a beautifully directed and very real sex scene between the two leads that touched my heart and made me recall "my first time." I defy anyone to watch this particular scene without being moved. Nonetheless, I'd call this film a bomb-in-the-making.

Grade: C – 

FLIGHT (2012)

Rated: R

Stars: Denzel Washington,  Kelly Reilly,  John Goodman,  Don Cheadle
Director: Robert Zemeckis
Genre: Thriller/Drama

There are the fortunate, and there are the unfortunate turns we take in life. There are fortunate and unfortunate turns in a film script as well--which can transform a movie into something truly special, or just standard run-of-the-mill fare. If you don't think too much about the unfortunate turn that you can see coming from a mile away (at least I could) in Flight, the latest Denzel Washington vehicle, it can be a pretty enjoyable ride on the way to its crash landing.

Whip Whitaker (Denzel Washington) is this  hotshot commercial pilot who flies a crippled airliner upside down in a hellacious storm and lands it in a cow pasture with nearly all the souls on board surviving to tell about it.  But Whip has a dirty little secret. He's a drunk. (Think Captain Sullenberger on the sauce.) He was ripped when he boarded the aircraft, and he surreptitiously  imbibed during the flight. His boozing didn't cause the plane's troubles--that was due to mechanical failure--but rules are rules and laws are laws, and after some edge-of-your-seat excitement at the beginning that puts us right in the cockpit as the aircraft pitches, tosses and turns, (and we get ready to toss our cookies) Flight becomes a tale of a man fleeing his own conscience, as he tries to keep his in-flight indiscretions from being discovered during an upcoming NTSB hearing.  There to assist him in the cover-up are his lawyer, (Don Cheadle) an old friend and pilot's union rep, (Bruce Greenwood) and his drug connection, (John Goodman)  whose job is to bring Whitaker out of his binge induced stupors with an occasional toot of cocaine. 

There is a subplot involving a young addict (Kelly Reilly) who is there--near as I can tell--to provide some eye candy and female presence in what is otherwise a  male dominated cast.   

John Goodman absolutely steals (or hijacks) this movie, and it is worth the price of admission just to ingest his bodacious, wickedly funny portrayal of dope dealer Harling Mays, for whom it's all in a day's work.            

It's a good thing too, because the climax of  this film is as moralistic and predictable as any network TV cop or detective show. In making that turn for home, the movie takes the road usually traveled. There are more imaginative alternate endings that even I came up with in my wee little brain that would have given us more food for thought than the peanuts we were served on this Flight.

Grade:  B -