TWO OSCAR NOMINATED FILMS: JOJO RABBIT/PARASITE

Rated: PG-13

STARS: Roman Griffin Davis, Thomasin McKenzie, Scarlett Johaansson, Taika Waititi
DIRECTOR: Taika Waititi
GENRE: Dark Comedy/Drama

Imagine that your imaginary playmate is Adolf Hitler.  Not that difficult if you're a white supremacist these days, I'd guess, though more plausible if you're a young Nazi wannabe in Germany during the last stages of the big war--on his way to a Hitler youth camp, where the fun activities are not swimming and volleyball, but killing and blowing stuff up. 

Such is life for ten year-old JoJo Betzler (Roman Griffin Davis) as he tries to cope with conflicting existential emotions. Because things are not exactly as they seem. His mother, Rosie (Scarlett Johannson), is harboring a young Jewish girl (Thomasin McKenzie). JoJo reels back in shock when he discovers her in their home. What is this--a Jew? Some kind of monster? After all that's what he's been brainwashed to believe. Fear leads to falling under the older girl's spell, and JoJo will soon realize that he's not cut out to be a Nazi. Because he's still in touch with his own sense of humanity.

From the get-go, all subtlety is lacking in JoJo Rabbit, switching from its elements of Monty Python-esque black humor to serious drama, like a fighter setting you up with the left jab and then delivering the knockout punch. 1-2...boom!  (The bodies of men and women hang in the public square throughout the film, and people just go on about their business.)

As I watched, I wondered why it would be necessary to make this film late in the year 2019, as cinematically inventive as it is--flailing away like Captain Obvious on colossal evils now fading into the whirlpool of the distant past--as if to say: And remember kids, we must never forget that evil is bad! (There is shock value for anyone who doesn't remember Mel Brooks' "Nazi humor" from his 1967 film The Producers.)

And then I thought maybe it's intended to be a response to what is perceived as a growing culture of hate emanating from the far right, as evidenced by white supremacists who now feel more emboldened to come out of the woodwork. Perhaps director Taika Waititi felt that some of us needed to be jolted out of our sense of complacency that fascism could never rear its ugly head again on a such a grand scale.

JoJo Rabbit is nominated in four Oscar categories: Best Picture, Supporting Actress, Film Editing, and Costume Design. 

Grade:  B +



Rated:  R

STARS: Song Kang Ho, Park So dam, Choi Woo-sik, Yeo Jeong Jo
DIRECTOR Bong Joon Ho
GENRE: Dark Comedy/Drama

Our second feature is also a dark comedy (it seems to be the year for them at the Oscars). Wafting in on a refreshing breeze from Korea is Parasite--a film about class divisions and what happens when some folk living in a bug infested basement apartment in Seoul worm their way into the lives of an upper class family, gaining their trust through deception and misrepresentation. Just when the con artists--the Kim family--think they've boarded the gravy train by fast talking their way into lucrative jobs with the Park family (tutor, art instructor, cook, driver), the apple cart is upended when the presence of an intruder who has been there all along is suddenly revealed. (Have you taken a good look around your basement lately to see who might be living down there?)

The Kim family members are so brashly clever in their deception that the Park family matriarch, Yeon-kyo (Jo yeo Jeong), who is totally gullible and naive, doesn't know they're all part of the same clan. It makes for some implausibly comic moments as the ruse plays out day by day. All the while we sense that the crap is about to hit the fan somewhere along the way, and when it does the film kicks into a shocking and disturbing new gear.  

Director Bong Joon Ho seems to be using basements metaphorically--how you can ascend from the darkness of that subterranean world into the light for a time, but if you're a cockroach at heart, there's a reason why that may not be the best place for you long term.

When what we get out of Hollywood these days is a lot of the same old shoot-em-up formulaic crap, a film as clever and inventive as Parasite shows that we can still go to the movies and be surprised.

Nominated for six Oscars: Best Picture, Director, Original Screenplay, Best International Feature Film, Film Editing, and Production Design. 

Grade: B +

JILL'S TAKE(S)

I saw these two movies weeks ago so my memory of them has blurred a bit. I do remember suggesting to Tim that we double-review them because, for my money, they both deserve an Academy Award for ORIGINALITY.

I saw Parasite first. Several friends had raved about it . I wasn't particularly eager to see it, assuming from its quirky title that I'd be in for a lot of slimy creatures, slithering around eating people. What a relief to be so wrong!

Two points I'd like to make about Parasite. First of all, it made me think a lot. How grateful I am to have a roof over my head...how oblivious the rich are to the ills of the poor in every culture...how certainty is just an illusion. And my second point? The ending of this movie was beyond original. I defy even the most seasoned movie-goer to figure it out ahead of time.

Parasite (which I'll bet my bloomers will win at least 2 Oscars on February 9^th if not more) is the first film from South Korea to earn such world-wide recognition. Omedetō, Bong Joon Ho!

Grade: B +

Onward to Jojo Rabbit! Again, I was not keen on seeing this one from the previews. It just looked too campy. (Monty Python Meets The Marx Brothers?) And being a big fan of Schindler's List, I was a bit put off by another Hitler spoof. But when I saw that it had been nominated in this year's Best Picture category, I decided to take a chance.... 

Despite the freezing temperature in the local movie theater (built in 1929) where it was playing, and the antiquated sound system (where I missed 20% of the dialog), I really enjoyed Jojo Rabbit. It was—pardon my redundancy—a very original film. You had to pay attention to this one!

I'm not sure a graduate of Dachau would find it all that amusing. But it's geared for a younger audience, none of whom would probably know what Dachau was. And I must say that Scarlett Johansson's Best Supporting Actress nod seems undeserved in my book. But it's a fun way to spend an hour and 48 minutes. (If you've read all four of these reviews, you deserve an Oscar!)

Grade: B

THE MULE (2018)

STARS: Clint Eastwood, Bradley Cooper, Dianne Wiest
DIRECTOR: Clint Eastwood
GENRE: Drama/ Dark Comedy

Clint Eastwood is Earl Stone, a 90 year-old (the man himself is 88) horticulturist and Korean war vet who's been estranged from his family for some time. We're not sure why he missed his daughter's wedding in favor of the bottle. Maybe he just likes his space. When he falls on hard times and his business is foreclosed upon, Earl must seek an alternate income. Stepping in to fill the void is a Mexican drug cartel. They see he has a clean driving record and would potentially make a good "mule,"or drug courier. Soon Earl is transporting mega-bucks worth of cocaine in his truck--initially not even aware of what his cargo is, until he gets curious and checks it out in his trunk. 

His naivete about the whole thing is hard for us to buy. But maybe he doesn't want to know. It's a job, and his employers aren't encouraging him to be nosy. The wads of cash he starts raking in may allow him to buy his way back into the good graces of his ex-wife (Dianne Wiest) and his daughter and grand daughter, who's impending wedding may give him a chance to redeem himself.

When I walk into a Clint Eastwood film, I'm always wondering how he's going to politicize this one. He does, of course, in The Mule, but he seems to have softened since the likes of his jingoistic American Sniper. He's got a sense of humor, and it's on display in spades, as he pokes playful fun at lesbians, millennials, and minorities, among others.  

Much like Woody Allen, Eastwood is speaking through his characters, but the Jewish humor is replaced by what you'd expect from a curmudgeonly old white guy who leans so far to the right you wonder when he's going to tip over. But he let's his characters throw it right back at him as they grow increasingly frustrated and bewildered by Earl's erratic and unpredictable ways. The one-liners and the zingers fall in all the right places, and the theater audience eats it up. 

Eastwood has learned his lesson since surrounding himself with non-actors in the disastrous Gran Torino, and The 15:17 To Paris (less disastrous). His Latino cartel guys are authentically bad-ass, and the rest of the cast, including Bradley Cooper as a DEA agent who is on Earl's tail, is well-seasoned. Also on board are Andy Garcia, Laurence Fishburne, and Alison Eastwood--Clint's real life daughter--playing his movie daughter. There's some type-casting for you.

The Mule is a breezy ride, in a darkly comedic sort of way--there's even some boobs and gyrating booty thrown in for the younger set. Fun for the whole family! And Eastwood still gets his message across--that the world has taken some pretty strange turns since he and his peers were coming up. On that, I'll have to agree.

Grade:  B

JILL'S TAKE

To quote Will Rogers, "A difference of opinion is what makes horse racing and missionaries." And, boy, do Tim and I differ on this one. Yes, given Mr. Eastwood's advanced age, his acting skills (remembering lines, walking briskly, the nuances of his facial expressions, etc.) is impressive. But so is Christopher Plummer's on screen presence. (And he's 89!)

My main beef with The Mule is its repetitiveness. Do we really need to see old Clint make 12 drug deliveries? And how many singing-in-the-car scenes are necessary? Because this film juggles three separate storylines—drug trafficking, family estrangements and cops chasing after Clint—I got tired of having to switch my focus. Granted the writers Sam Dolnick and Nick Schenk had to stick to the facts presented in the New York Times Magazine Article "The Sinaloa Cartel's 90-year-old Drug Mule." But it got confusing at times. And annoying.

But Clint Easwood's body of work is nothing to scoff at. Unlike Tim, my favorite old curmudgeon role of his was in Gran Torino. And my all-time favorite role was his portrayal of Dave in the 1971 classic Play Misty For Me. The very fact that everyone has a "favorite Clint Eastwood film" is testament to his overall talent and durability.

Sadly, this one left me wishing I could partake of some of that cocaine so I'd enjoy The Mule more....

Grade: C

GAME NIGHT (2018)

Rated:  R

STARS: Jason Bateman, Rachel McAdams, Kyle Chandler, Jesse Plemons
DIRECTOR: John Francis Daley, Jonathon M. Goldstein
GENRE: Dark Comedy/ Mystery/ Suspense

It ain't over till it's over. In cinematic terms, that phrase was never more appropriate than to Game Night!

Max and Annie (Jason Bateman, Rachel McAdams) are the nucleus of a group of friends who love their game nights! Charades, Pictionary, Jenga--you name it--they play like their lives depend on it. Ironically, that's just what develops when Max's more successful older brother, Brooks (Kyle Chandler) shows up and invites them to play at his house. It's a murder mystery party--great fun, eh? But it becomes all too real when a group of violent thugs invades the premises and kidnaps Brooks. All part of the game, right? The couples proceed on that assumption, as they begin a frantic search to find him. Hey, there's a classic Corvette Stingray that goes to the winners! But they will run into some truly scary hombres along the way, and suddenly it's confusing as to what may be real and what may be part of the game. 

Joining Max and Annie on the adventure are Ryan and Sarah (Billy Magnussen, Sharon Horgan)  and Kevin and Michelle (Lamorne Morris, Kylie Bunbury). Each couple has its own quirky relationship issues that play out against the action/mystery/suspense backdrop. The pacing of the plot sometimes takes a back seat to the personal relationship gags, but the little detours are comically rewarding and well worth it. Don't worry, there's plenty of wild and crazy action to come...in spades!

Inventiveness abounds, as in the rugby metaphor where a priceless Faberge egg is being tossed about like a hot potato...everything's a game...life is a game!


Stealing the show is Max and Annie's deadpan somber policeman neighbor, Gary (Jesse Plemons). Gary makes Keely Smith look like the life of the party (ya gotta be pretty old to remember her routine with Louis Prima--uh, I'm only familiar with it through YouTube videos!)  Needless to say, Gary is a buzz kill, and the running gag is that he wants to join the couples on their game nights, with Max and Annie using every comically transparent deception to throw him off the scent and convince him there's "nothing to see here." 

Game Night, brilliantly conceived and executed, is the wildest and goofiest ride you're going to take all year, and it'll keep you guessing right up to the final moment. It truly is the most fun you can have with your clothes on! 

Grade:  A     

JILL'S TAKE

(Or your clothes off, as far as I'm concerned.) Game Night is a winner all around. If you don't see any other film this month, or year, or in your lifetime, go see this one! It's a laugh-out-loud, movie trivia buff's orgy of a movie. If you've seen the trailer, or read Tim's review, you already know what you're getting into. What you don't know is how engrossing it is. The audience where I was—disappointed that they couldn't get into the theater playing Black Panther—forgot feeling miffed the minute Game Night started. Like me, they were hooked!

If any of you have see Jason Bateman in the Netflix original Ozark, you already know what a good actor he is. And if you seen Kyle Chandler in the Netflix original Bloodline, you know what a good/bad guy he can turn into. A word I seldom use but feel compelled to in describing this script, skillfully penned by Mark Perez, would be "seamless." Not a false moment slinks by. And each pair of game-players has an individual story that'll entice you even further. But be forewarned: you'd better suspend your disbelief at the door!

As a flaw-finding film critic, I'm at a loss to point out anything in Game Night that I didn't enjoy.  And if you, like the rest of us, are currently experiencing bad weather?  (It's cold as a witch's you-know-what here in Del Mar!)  This movie will make you forget your woes entirely. It's Entertainment Personified!

Grade: A

3 BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI

Rated:  R

STARS: Frances McDormand, Woody Harrelson, Sam Rockwell, John Hawkes
DIRECTOR: Martin McDonagh
GENRE: Dark Comedy/Drama

Think of how hard it is to get through life without making a wrong move. Or a boatload of them. Next to impossible. It's not easy in the movies either, which portray life in a manner that involves a lot more forethought than most of us use in our real life decisions. It's easier to go off the rails than not. Wrong moves in casting...pacing...length...effectiveness of the message--if there even is one, etc. That's why it's rare to find a movie that makes all the right moves from start to finish--and that film is 3 Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, which deftly balances the darkly comical aspects of its characters with the serious drama they create.

A young woman has been raped and murdered. The perpetrator has not been caught. The victim's mother, Mildred Hayes (Frances McDormand), is a feisty old firebrand (the townsfolk have other names for her) who has grown weary of the lack of progress since many moons ago in solving the case, and she's out to hold the local sheriff, Bill Willoughby  (Woody Harrelson), accountable. This she will do in a big way, by renting out three billboards that remind the locals of the crime, and call the sheriff out by name.

Sheriff Willoughby is well-liked in the town, and there are folks who want Mildred to shut her trap. And some will try to do it for her. One of them is officer Jason Dixon, a mama's boy and a racist, with a penchant for violence. Sam Rockwell plays him to clueless perfection, and that's why when Dixon actually stumbles upon a major clue--as things really begin to heat up--he becomes a more interesting and unpredictable character. It's the unexpected twists and turns of 3 Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri that are part of the reason why it's so good. Along with providing tasty food for thought in asking the question: Should one man pay for another man's crime, solely because it appears he may have committed a similar evil?

Frances McDormand will undoubtedly receive an Oscar nomination for her work here--and I wouldn't be surprised to see Rockwell and Harrelson joining her. And let's go on record as predicting a Best Picture nomination as well. That's what comes when you make all the right moves and go down the right roads right up till the end...which, by the way, is as poignantly perfect as any I can recall.

Grade:  A

JILL'S TAKE

Dammit, Tim. Our readers prefer these joint reviews when we disagree. But that won't happen this time as I couldn't agree with you more. Except perhaps for the movie's lengthy title. (Three Billboards would've worked just as well.) The one element you didn't mention that I just loved was the score. Carter Burwell has outdone himself this time. I'm not at all surprised that he also created the musical background for another cinematic gem that was set in a small town with a bumbling sherriff's deparment:Fargo.

But since Tim has covered just about everything I would've written, I want to digress. About a month ago, I was watching "Real TimeWith Bill Maher" on HBO. He and Woody Harrelson were reminiscing about the good old days when they were both pot smokers. Apparently Harrleson has been clean now for a year. Maher remarked that his friend's new weed-free status had undoubtedly upped Woody's film-making energy! (I would have to agree since we've reviewed him in three major movies in the last three months: The Glass Castle, LBJ and nowThree Billboards.) Right on, Woody. Right on!

What I admired most about Three Billboards was its unexpected twists and turns. I'm not one of these movie-goers who automatically predicts outcomes before they happen. Many of my movie buddies are which often makes me feel like a mental sloth. But I challenge any of them to guess the outcomes in this flick! (Full credit belongs to English director/writer Martin McDonagh.)

If for no other reason than you are addicted to "Game of Thrones," go see this movie for the wonderful cameo by Peter Dinklage.

Grade: A

BEATRIZ AT DINNER (2017)

Rated: R

STARS: Salma Hayek, John Lithgow, Connie Britton, Jay Duplass, Chloe Sevigny, Amy Landecker, David Warshofsky
DIRECTOR: Miguel Arteta
GENRE: Dark Comedy/Drama


We live in a politically polarized nation (I'm talking about America--if you are outside the U.S., I don't know at this point whether to congratulate you or send my condolences). So it was inevitable that a film such as Beatriz At Dinner would come along--prompting us to titter at ourselves in grin-and-bear-it fashion, while simultaneously providing plenty of food for thought.

Salma Hayek is riveting as Mexican immigrant Beatriz--a massage therapist/ holistic healer with a deep empathy and love for all critters great and small. Her car breaks down during a professional visit to her client/friend Cathy (Connie Britton), and she becomes an unscheduled guest at the dinner party being thrown that evening for an ensemble of perfectly shallow upscale southern Californians--headed by Doug Strutt (John Lithgow), a sociopathic land developer and big game hunter.

Things start out with polite interaction between Beatriz and the other guests, though they reveal their vacuity with comments like "I love Cancun" while Beatriz is relating a story about her early life in Mexico.

The fireworks begin when Strutt passes around a digital image of himself posing beside a dead rhino that he has gunned down somewhere in Africa. Beatriz sees red and fires off a verbal barrage--throwing his phone at his head to emphasize her point. Her righteous indignation seemed to win over the audience in the theater. But then director Miguel Arteta and screenwriter Mike White felt the need to portray her as someone becoming rapidly unhinged from that point forward (out of character from everything she stands for), as if to say we don't want to take sides between the Trump and the Bernie factions, so let's give each something to roll their eyes about.

And while Lithgow's villainous Doug Strutt grabs center stage the way he grabs up land for shady development deals, it is Connie Britton as Cathy who gives the most layered performance as the "friend" who has nothing but praise and admiration for Beatriz in the beginning, then shifts ever so subtly as things go along to reveal herself, in the end, as being just as shallow and ruthless as the people she hangs out with.

As we approach the Fourth Of July, I recommend you see Beatriz At Dinner. The incendiary battle of ideologies embodied by Hayek and Lithgow's characters is worth the price of admission--though the ending will leave you up in the air (a pun) as to what really happened and what it means, as well as a feeling of being somewhat underfed by the mere 77 minutes of running time.

Grade :  B

JILL'S TAKE

Beatriz At Dinner is not a film for the faint-hearted. It will leave you with a bitter taste in your mouth no matter which side of the political seesaw you are teetering on. Salma Hayak's performance is as authentic as they get. But to sound like the superficial ladies at that dinner party, I might also point out that Salma's 'put on a few' since her Oscar-nominated performance in Frida. ("That Mexican food will do it to you every time," those ladies might whisper, cattily.) 

What I thought was very well scripted was how blissfully unaware the guests were of their own prejudices and bigotry. It reminded me of my dad when I chose to marry a Jew. His classic response? "Why, some of my best friends are Jewish!" When I tried to point out that his statement was making "them" different than "us," he replied: "But they are different! They give more money to public institutions, they respect education more!" I shrugged my shoulders and prayed that he wouldn't greet his new son-in-law with that some-of-my-best-friends line. (Which he did within five minutes.) I felt that this movie depicted that kind of insular ignorance extremely well. 

Acting kudos go out to John Lithgow. Big time. Having recently seem him portray Winston Churchill in the Netflix series "The Crown," I found it remarkable how such a tall actor could play such a short, squat man in his final years as England's prime minister. And do it so convincingly.

But the film took a turn for the worse towards the end. And what really pissed me off was the happily-ever-after images at the end. I haven't given anything away here but if you see Beatriz At Dinner, you will know immediately what I'm referring to. You don't do sad and then tack on happy. Life just doesn't work that way.

Grade: C +

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CATFIGHT (2017)

NR

STARS: Sandra Oh, Anne Heche, Alicia Silverstone
DIRECTOR: Oner Tukel
GENRE: Dark Comedy


We tend to think of a "catfight" as a snotty verbal altercation between two women that might, if it gets out of hand, devolve into some hair pulling. This ain't that kinda thing. This is Rocky Balboa and Apollo Creed. Bare knuckled.

And in this corner, weighing one hundred and seventeen pounds...

Don't be deceived. Catfight pits a couple of cinematic heavyweights--Sandra Oh and Anne Heche--against one another in a knockdown drag out slugfest of epic proportions!

Sandra Oh Plays Veronica--a self-absorbed housewife married to a wealthy industrialist war profiteer.  Anne Heche is a struggling lesbian artist. Freud would have a field day with her paintings. They haven't seen each other since college when their paths cross at a glitzy birthday party. Old resentments surface. Verbal barbs begin to fly, and soon thereafter the fists. Veronica gets the worst of it and ends up in a coma. For two years. Meanwhile, Ashley's fortunes have changed, and she is now a celebrated artist. Veronica has lost everything and takes work as a maid. 

Fate throws the two of them together again and another brawl ensues. This time Ashley loses--by a knockout--and ends up in a coma. For two years. When she awakens, all her funds have gone to pay the medical bills, and her notoriety is gone. And the first one now shall later be last...there but for fortune...and all that. I love the symmetry of it. In all, there are three grudge matches between them where the punches fly and the blood flows freely. Some people are just always rubbing you the wrong way.

Catfight makes its satirical statement in a not so subtle way. No reading between the lines required. It has to do with, among other things, our national obsession with violence and war. With every punch thrown, there's the mandatory SOCKO sound effect (which you don't hear in a real fight) that's in every TV show and movie that features fisticuffs. Which is most of them. 

Sit in front of the tube for a couple hours and take note of the shows they promo during the breaks. What do they show in these short clips? Somebody getting punched or shot. We've grown so numb to it, we're no longer aware of what it's saying about us. Maybe a clue to that is in the "Fart Machine"--a guy who interrupts the late night TV host's monologue by parading out and feigning flatulence. Everybody who watches this is highly amused--and, of course, distracted from what's really going on around them. (A statement about our declining intelligence level?)

Catfight is like a hot fudge sundae. Dark and delicious. And yes, dark humor requires something of a sophisticated mindset to be able to differentiate it from that which is being presented as deadly serious. Through humor the most serious of issues are often examined. The darker the humor, the more deadly serious those issues can be. And that's why humor should not be taken lightly.

Grade:  B +  

JILL'S TAKE

OMG! I can't believe what I just read. At the end of Catfight, I turned to Tim and whispered, "This is, bar none, the worst f---ing movie I've ever seen!" Dark humor be damned. The tag line of this turkey should have read: "Thelma and Louise Meet Wrestlemania" with a little Animal House thrown in for good measure. Sheesh! (My personal expression of disgust.)

I can just imagine the "pitch" for this non film went something like, "Listen, JB. Let's get two bankable female stars to beat each other up for 96 minutes. We've seen tons of movies where guys do it but it's time to give women their due." Billed as a 'black and blue comedy,' the plot was so unbelievable, and the violence so un-funny, that I just plain hated it. Except for the musical score. They don't list a scorer but the musical supervisor, Devoe Yates, must have had a blast picking famous classical themes such as Grieg's "Anitra's Dance" to contrast with the battles going on onscreen. Still, I have a problem with violent comedies. (I wasn't particularly amused by Married to The Mob or My Cousin Vinny, either.) Maybe it's just me. After all, the Tomatometer gave it 76% -- but the audience score wasn't nearly as favorable...

The really sad part? Catfight is the last movie Tim and I will see together. I leave for California in two days. For good. We'll still write our joint reviews long distance but it won't be quite the same without him quietly disagreeing with me (or not!) as the credits roll. 

Grade:: F

MONEY MONSTER (2016)

Rated: R

STARS: George Clooney, Jack O'Connell, Julia Roberts
DIRECTOR: Jodie Foster
GENRE: Thriller/Dark Comedy

Money Monster is that extra dark (85% cacao) type of comedy--meaning that the darker it is, the less it will register with the average moviegoer as being comedy, though there were a couple of moments when the whole audience was a-titter at the showing I attended. Packaged as a taut thriller, Money Monster gets right to it--no song and dance. Except...uh...for the actual song and dance number at the beginning.

George Clooney is Lee Gates, a TV financial analyst--sort of the Apollo Creed of the breed--who hams it up while dispensing stock tips, one of which bombs (delayed pun coming up) badly when the stock of a company he has touted tanks to the tune of an 800 million dollar loss. Naturally, some people are going to be distressed about that--like those who took Gates' advice to heart and invested heavily--one of whom is young Kyle Budwell (Jack O'Connell), who sneaks onto the set of the show and takes Gates hostage, threatening to shoot the star if the program doesn't continue live under Budwell's "direction."  Kyle lost all of his savings by following Gates' advice on a "hot tip" stock, and now he's demanding some answers. It's edge-of-your-seat tension from there on out, as control booth director Patty Fenn (Julia Roberts) tries to make all the right moves to keep loose cannon Kyle--who has strapped a bomb vest onto Gates--from making the whole joint go KABOOM!

Bernie Sanders fans should appreciate the theme here--that Wall Street is evil and corrupt--but deeper than that, in my interpretation, is an indictment of capitalism itself, which stokes the unmitigated greed of those who can't see the green of the forest for the long green of the dollar signs dazzling their eyes (and that should resonate with Michael Moore fans as well).

The only trouble is that Money Monster, which starts with a reasonably believable scenario, gets more and more wildly implausible as it speeds along, leading to your typically neat and tidy Hollywood ending. But it did keep me awake throughout, which is more than I can say for some of the films I've seen recently. (If something like this were to ever happen live on CNN, I could see them cutting in at the most critical moments to do their regular commercial breaks--the ultimate irony--and I think they should have put that in the movie!). 

What I've noticed about George Clooney's performances, over a succession of his films that I've seen, is that he sometimes seems to be somewhere else, delivering his lines in what strikes me as a perfunctory manner, but then all of a sudden he kicks it into gear and he's right on the money, which is the case here.

Kudos to Julia Roberts for signing onto a project where she's in a supporting role. I found her believable as Patty Fenn, whose personal issues with Gates will come to the fore in the middle of the action.

But Money Monster belongs to young Jack O'Connell as Kyle, whose angst and sweat-dripping desperation I totally bought into. Now and then you're having a bad day...enough gets to be enough...and you take a TV host hostage at gunpoint and get the whole city in a panicked uproar. It could happen. He should have consulted with me before acting hastily,  as I could have imparted the first rule of prudent investment strategy: DIVERSIFY!

Grade: B

JILL'S TAKE

I agree with Tim about young Jack O'Connell's acting. Brilliant. When Money Monster focuses on him and his inept take-over of a TV station, the result is riveting. I only wish I could say the same about the first half of the film. Setting up Clooney's egotistical character (a Jim Kramer type with hair) took far too long. And as thrillers go, that's a definite no-no. I also felt much of the stock trader lingo and financial explanations were unnecessary and slowed down the pace.

That being said, I enjoyed the movie. A lot. And the cameo performance of Emily Meade as the very pregnant, very pissed off wife of the gunman, is dark humor at its best. When asked to go on camera to plead with her husband not to do anything foolish, she lambastes him instead for investing their life's savings so foolishly. Unexpected and delightfully quirky. 

I noticed at the beginning of the film the credits read: A Film By Jodie Foster. I so admire actors, especially women, who dare to take a different creative path. Some of her other directorial credits include 2 episodes of Orange Is The New Black and 1 episode of House of Cards. Way to go, Jodie! Way to go!

Grade: B (sorry to be such a copycat, Tim)

WILD TALES (2014)

Rated: R

STARS: Ricardo Darin, Leonardo Sbaraglia, Dario Grandinetti, Erica Rivas, Oscar Martinez
DIRECTOR: Damian Szifron
GENRE: Dark Comedy

Six wickedly delicious Wild Tales from Argentina illustrate how dangerously close many of us are to the edge-- and how little it may take to send us right over it. 

Strangers on a plane discover, one by one, that they all have a connection to a certain person. Then comes the chilling realization that this person is in the cockpit!  (This one hits close to home in light of recent events.)

A mafioso stops at a cafe where the waitress recognizes him as the person who destroyed her family. Sympathetic to her plight, the cook offers to put rat poison in the man's food. But the waitress has conflicting emotions. Like most of these vignettes, the ending has a twist you won't see coming.

Two men driving their vehicles on a deserted highway become involved in a road rage incident. (If they were the last two people on earth, this would still happen!) And as we all know, these things have a way of escalating into something way out of proportion to what the original minor irritation should dictate. 

A demolition expert's car is towed away while he shops for his daughter's birthday. Again, we identify. The frustration that can build up in dealing with the bureaucracy.  Another potentially "explosive" situation.

A rich kid hits a pregnant woman with his dad's car and leaves the scene. Dad concocts a plan to have his groundskeeper take the fall for the hit and run, after offering the man an enormous sum of money. The bribery expands to include the prosecutor and others. A tangled web we weave. 

At her wedding party, a newlywed learns that her groom has been unfaithful to her with one of the guests at the reception.  And here, for my money, we have the wildest and wackiest of the six episodes. She goes berserk in a way that only a woman scorned can do, ending up having sex with the cook on the roof of the building. You've never seen a "bridezilla" quite like this one. Can a relationship that gets off to such a dubious start possibly end up in that fairy tale land of happily ever after?  You'll be surprised!

In the end, these are cautionary tales--reminding us that beneath the veneer of a polite and civilized society, most of us--under the right circumstances-- are a heartbeat away from reverting to our base animal nature. Which can be really scary. AND/OR FUNNY AS HELL.

Grade:  B +

JILL'S TAKE    

Where to begin. Tim has done a masterful job synopsizing all six of these outrageous stories. For me, they're all about revenge in some form or another. Getting even. With your parents, the government, your philandering mate. But what makes these tales "wild" for me are the unexpected twists and turns. They remind me of a story by Roald Dahl called "Lamb to the Slaughter" which has the same darkly comedic feel.

    The idea for this particular piece was supposedly suggested to Dahl by his friend and fellow author Ian Fleming who said, "Why don't you have someone murder their husband with a frozen leg of mutton which she then serves to the detectives who come to investigate the murder?" A wonderful twist that we don't see coming.

    I can't rave enough about this highly original film which was nominated this past year for Best Foreign Language Film. (It should've won, damnit!)

    If I had to pick my favorite tale it would have to be the one where one driver (in a fancy Beamer) gives another driver (in a beat-up pickup truck) the bird and then calls him an asshole as he is finally able to pass the guy. Haven't we all done that? (Or wanted to!) Well, as fate would have it, the BMW's left rear tire blows out and the driver is mechanically inept. We, in the audience, are on the edge of our seats, waiting for the asshole to come chug-a-lugging along around the bend. And he does. What happens next not even Roald Dahl could dream up. I won't spoil it for you but I guarantee you won't be name-calling any more bad drivers for a long, long time!

Grade: A+