THE NIGHT CLERK (2020)

Rated:  R

STARS: Tye Sheridan, Ana De Armas, Helen Hunt, John Leguizamo
DIRECTOR: Michael Cristofer
GENRE: Mystery/Suspense

With Helen Hunt, Tye Sheridan, Ana De Armas, and John Leguizamo, The Night Clerk doesn't lack for star power. What it does lack is that edge-of-your-seat tension and buildup to an explosive climax. The film, which has now made its way to Netflix, creeps along at an escargot pace, getting creepier by the minute. You might be okay with that, because The Night Clerk is a character study of a most fascinating dude. And the plot challenges you to stay on your toes and be your own amateur sleuth. At just 90 minutes running length, this is one you might easily watch a second time, in case you're sketchy about some things after the first go round.

Bart Bromley (Tye Sheridan) works the overnight shift as a hotel desk clerk. He's a young guy, socially awkward. More than most. He has Asperger's Syndrome. He's set up cameras in some of the rooms so he can observe the guests. He's not after sexual gratification. He likes to study people.Their speech patterns and mannerisms. So that he might develop, he thinks, a more "normal" public persona.

A woman named Karen (Jacque Gray) checks into the hotel. She lets a man into her room. They have an altercation that turns violent and Karen ends up dead. Bart has recorded the whole thing. When questioned by the police, his quirky behavior arouses the suspicions of detective Espada (John Leguizamo). 

Bart gets transferred to one of the hotel chain's other properties. An intriguing young woman named Andrea (Ana De Armas) checks in, Bart has his spy equipment observing her in her room. Andrea is drawn to Bart because she had a brother with Asperger's. Eventually they get around to spending the night together in a nonsexual, cuddly kind of way. Bart is falling hard for her. Andrea lets it slip that she is seeing a married man.

In a deja vu kind of moment, Bart observes a man with Andrea in her room. The man's behavior turns abusive. At this point, we've got to be thinking there's more here than meets the eye. Oh, how brilliant you are! Andrea's admission about the married man should point you (if you've been using your noodle) to a possible connection between herself and Karen's killer. 

I bought into Tye Sheridan's portrayal of Bart. He makes him quirky, but doesn't overdo it. Bart's an intelligent guy, and there's a balance that needed to be struck in order to bring that out within the framework of his social awkwardness.  

Ana De Armas, as Andrea, had a meaty part in the previously reviewed Knives Out. She's getting a lot of work and is becoming a fast rising star.

Helen Hunt, as Bart's overprotective mother, has a couple of emotive scenes, but it seems they could have plugged anybody into this non essential role. But then they wouldn't have had Helen Hunt to put up on the marquee.

John Leguizamo, as the detective, gives an understated performance, in line with the mood of this understated film.

The ending of The Night Clerk may have  you saying: WHA???  But then I do that every morning when I open my eyes to this creepy and strange world we live in.

Grade: B -

JILL'S TAKE

Finally, a Netflix offering I didn't hate. In fact, I rather enjoyed it. Unlike Tim, I felt the pace worked and I couldn't tear myself away from this offbeat film. (Not even for a bathroom break.)

At 23 years of age with a mere duo of film credits, Tye Sheridan played the main character in The Night Clerk with a clarity and consistency that is indeed impressive. However, I did find it slightly questionable that someone with Asperger's Syndrome, who flinched when a barber accidentally touched his skin, would permit the lip-lovely Ana De Armas to caress and kiss him.

It reminded me of that movie As Good As It Gets (that won Helen Hunt an Oscar in 1998) when Jack Nicholson's character was "cured" of his OCD because of love. ("You make me want to be a better man.") Hokey, yes. But then movie goers are natural born romantics, aren't they.... I guess the blame for that psychological disparity would have to be placed on Pulitzer prize-winner (The Shadow Box) screenwriter and director Michael Christofer.

I've had such a mad-on about watching movies on Netflix rather than in movie theaters that I was beginning to wonder if I'd ever be able to appreciate any film I watched on TV – which, in the past, has been reserved for Netflix "series." Thankfully, with the advent of The Night Clerk I was able to!

Grade: B +

  



    

KNIVES OUT (2019)

Rated: PG-13

STARS: Christopher Plummer,  Daniel Craig, Ana De Armas, Jamie Lee Curtis, Toni Collette
DIRECTOR: Rian Johnson
GENRE: Mystery and Suspense

This would be a spoiler for most mystery movies--that the butler didn't do it--except for the fact there's no butler among the cast of Knives Out--an old-fashioned whodunit with a shopworn plot in the tradition of Agatha Christie, brought up to date by characters who are glancing at their cell phones a lot.  

The family patriarch, wealthy crime novelist Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer), has just bitten the big one under suspicious circumstances. Which introduces us to a host of greedy family members--as we are shown--each of whom has a potential motive for wanting to hasten the old man's demise. Their surfaces are barely scratched, save for Marta Cabrera (Ana De Armas), Harlan's young personal nurse, who believes she may be inadvertently responsible for his death due to a mixup with his medications.Throughout the bulk of the film we are being steered to buy into this version of events, but the surprise twist at the end is a staple of the genre, and Knives Out dutifully sticks to the blueprint.

The large ensemble cast features Daniel Craig as the  quirky southern-fried detective Benoit Blanc, in the mold of Columbo in that he has a sixth sense and just  knows things--piecing the puzzle together ahead of everyone else, and then obligingly laying it all out at the end for the benefit of those of us who are easily lost.  

Ana De Armas, as Marta--the only halfway developed character--brings a range of emotions as she goes to great, and sometimes comic lengths to try to conceal her involvement. Oh, and she has a rather gross and disgusting personal habit, which adds to the splattering merriment of things!

Jamie Lee Curtis, as daughter Linda, the lady who doth protest too much, is annoyingly shrill in her emotive outbursts.

But it's Christopher Plummer who, despite his age (he's pushing ninety), outshines them all and adds to his legacy as one of the world's greatest thespians.

There's lots of witty and  gritty repartee, as self-centered a-holes come up with creative ways to ramp up the snark, making Knives Out a pleasant and grin-inducing diversion on a summer's day in a world where all predictability is off the board.

Catch it on Netflix.

Grade:  B 

JILL'S TAKE

Never having been a fan of the classic dice and card board game Clue, or a devotee of Murder, She Wrote, Knives Out left me falling asleep on the couch. Z-z-z-z. A snooze of a film, the big names in the cast should have warned me ahead of time. I'm always suspect of too many luminaries in the same movie. For me, that translates into a plotless, character un-driven piece of fluff that's hoping star power will save it.

You either enjoy this genre for what it is (fluff-and-murder, murder-and-fluff) or it pisses you off. I fall into the latter category. So many good actors, so little chance to show off their talent. I'm a huge Toni Collette fan (United States Of Tara, Little Miss Sunshine, Unbelievable, etc.) but  watching her in this one-note role was actually painful. And Daniel Craig's terrible southern accent? Gimme a break!

If I have to give kudos to anyone, it's to the Set Decoration guy David Schlesinger. It was delightfully authentic! But the idea that writer/director Rian Johnson was nominated in 2020 for a Best Original Screenplay award is....mysterious, to say the least.

My advice? Don't waste your time. There are so many good series on Netflix and Amazon Prime that are really worth watching.

Grade: D

DA 5 BLOODS (2020)

Rated: R

STARS: Delroy Lindo, Clarke Peters, Norm Lewis, Isiah Whitlock JR., Jonathan Majors, Chadwick Boseman
DIRECTOR: Spike Lee
GENRE: Action/Adventure

Da 5 Bloods--Spike Lee's latest--is a topical film that pulls into the station right on time to take its place in the burgeoning Black Lives Matter movement.

The "bloods" are a group of African-American veterans (Delroy Lindo, Clarke Peters, Norm Lewis, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Jonathan Majors, and Chadwick Boseman--their fallen squad leader shown through flashbacks) returning to modern day Vietnam to search for the remains of their comrade and a big stash of gold they buried, with the intent of someday returning to claim it.

But despite the normalization of relations between the two countries, not all is rosy, as long held resentments and anti-American sentiment among some of the local populace begin to stir at the sight of the former G.I.s. Nonetheless, they head off into the jungle, as misguided as they were all those years ago as pawns in the tragic and costly geopolitical game their country was asking them to play.

They'll be shadowed by some locals with bad intent, and all we have to do is sit back and wait for all hell to break loose. Which it does, because Spike Lee is trying to straddle the line between giving us a poignant and meaningful reassessment of the war from a black perspective, snatching the narrative  from all those white filmmakers who came before, and a traditional action/adventure film with all the inherent Sam Peckinpah style shoot 'em up and gratuitous violence that goes with that territory. I wish he would have chosen one or the other, because what we end up with is an overly long, uneven film that suffers under the weight of trying to be too many things to too many people. 

Still, Da 5 Bloods is a movie worth seeing--part of the modern day mosaic of a rapidly changing world that doesn't know exactly where it's going, but hopes to count on some lessons learned from the past to get there, hopefully, in one piece.   

Now playing on Netflix.

Grade: B-

JILL'S TAKE

If the Oscars take place in 2021, I know who's gonna win one: Delroy Lindo. His portrayal of Paul, the classic victim of PTSD and the ravages of war, was beyond brilliant. Lindo is a veteran actor you've seen in dozens of roles (The Good Fight, Ransom, Law & Order, etc.) who will finally earn the accolades he so richly deserves.

And while I'm on the subject of actors in this superb film, I want to mention another one: Jean Reno. At first, I didn't recognize him. But once I heard that French accent, I remembered his unforgettable performance as an assassin in Leon: The Professional, charmed and even bossed around by a young Natalie Portman. In Da 5 Bloods, he plays another 'professional.' Only this time it's smuggling rather than killing.

Where to begin? First of all, for a two and a half hour movie, Spike Lee's tour de force didn't feel the least bit long to me. And unlike most films with lots of mini-plots, I was equally engrossed in all of them. Yes, there was plenty of gore and war. But the way the director wove shock value into the story didn't feel the least bit gratuitous. And another cinematic stroke of genius that Lee employed, one that could only work on TV, was using the small screen in flashbacks and the big screen in the present. (Kind of like memories versus reality.)

Usually, by my third paragraph, I find something to criticize. Maybe I'm just so starved for seeing a new film that my gratitude outweighs my critical faculties but I can find nothing to nit-pick in Da 5 Bloods. Even Lee's use of the word 'Da' is wonderfully original.

Sadly, the release of this film is incredibly well-timed. But even if it weren't, and even if COVID-19 didn't make movie-going impossible, I would urge everyone to watch this quintessential war movie.

Grade: A-

   

SERGIO (2020)

Rated: R

STARS: Wagner Moura, Ana de Armas, Bradley Whitford
DIRECTOR: Greg Barker
GENRE: Biopic

Sergio, just released on Netflix, is a biopic based on the true story of Sergio Vierra de Mello, a Brazilian diplomat for the United Nations whose long career was a series of personal and political ups and downs.

If the narrative in the film is to be believed, de Mello was an effective negotiator--a charmer who spoke straight and tough to power, but had a truly "diplomatic"way of facilitating negotiations between opposite sides, such as when he brokered a peace deal between East Timoor and Indonesia.

In 2003, he was appointed as a special U.N. envoy to Iraq, which turned out to be his last hurrah. A suicide truck bomb blast took him out. His story is told in hop, skip, and jump flashbacks, all eventually feeding into that explosive moment.

Wagner Moura, who portrays Sergio, does an admirable job of communicating the man's sensitivity and sympathy for the plight of the everyday people whose lives were impacted by the Iraq war. But his relationship with his family suffered, as evident in the scenes with his two young sons, who basically don't know him.

A love story runs parallel to the political. There is fiery chemistry between Moura and the captivating Ana de Armas, who plays fellow U.N. employee Carolina Larriera. At first she balks about him being married and having a family, but she eventually comes around and passion flares, in similar fashion to the way the film, where the camera lingers too long on some scenes, resulting in its nearly two hour run time,won me over; it's like quicksand in the way it slowly draws you in.

Sergio is told with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, and in that way is not particularly brave or insightful in its conclusions (everyone now agrees that Iraq was a tragic misstep for the U.S.), except as a character study of one man who maintained his integrity in the face of the prevailing mob mentality ("You're either with us or against us") fostered by the Bush administration at the time. An engaging story of triumph and tragedy. 

Grade: B +

JILL'S TAKE

Many many years ago, when I was a teenager, I had two serious crushes on movie stars: James Dean and Montgomery Clift. Both sensitive types who portrayed weak, vulnerable men. They shaped the type of men I've always been attracted to. Or so I thought until my last serious crush on a film star. Wagner Moura was the polar opposite of weak and sensitive as Pablo Escobar in the Netflix series "Narcos." But like Dean and Clift, he sure made my heart beat faster.

So when I saw that he was the lead in the latest movie offering on Netflix, I couldn't wait to watch it. Moura still can turn on the charm (as he did playing Escobar). A good 40 pounds lighter, without a moustache, he still has incredible sex appeal. But sex appeal isn't enough to carry this choppy, deafeningly loud, interminably long film. Trying to follow the two storylines---his career versus his love affair—gave me a headache. Is it a political movie with lots of steamy love scenes? Or an extra marital affair wrapped around a lot of bombings? (I'm getting a headache again just trying to figure it out!) 

I'm not big on history, ancient or recent. Maybe if I was, I would've enjoyed Sergio more. I'm really getting discouraged with the idea (I thought was brilliant at the time!) of reviewing Netflix films. Obviously, The Irishman and Marriage Story were flukes. All Netflix seems to be offering in the way of new movies these days is.....crap. Sorry, Tim. Let's wait until real movies start happening again....

Grade: C

MOLLY'S GAME (2018)

Rated: R

STARS: Jessica Chastain, Idris Elba, Kevin Costner
DIRECTOR: Aaron Sorkin
GENRE: Drama

I'll admit to having fantasized about being a professional poker player myself...it seems like the most exciting thing you can do just by flipping a finger. You would need nerves of steel and buns of wool to cushion your rear while sitting there all day practicing the art of the deadpan bluff. These guys, however, are ridiculous. Ultra-rich A-holes who apparently are so bored with life they've got nothing better to do than toss obscene wads of money around like they're casually buying up the deed to Park Place. 

And here is young Molly Bloom (Jessica Chastain), organizing and running the games for these high rollers, raking in a decent slice of the pot for herself.  How she went from being an Olympic caliber downhill skier who got injured to the high-stakes world of manipulating men in the sphere of illegal gambling is, apparently, the stuff of daddy issues--to be explained at the end by her psychologist father (Kevin Costner). That's if you make it through this overly talky marathon that conjures up an extended episode of Gilmore Girls. Between all the lines, characterization builds through flashing back and forth through the various stages of Bloom's life. 

There are a few things that kept me from engaging whole-heartedly with Molly's Game, based upon the awesome if not awe-inspiring true story. Primarily, it is Molly Bloom herself--or Jessica Chastain's one dimensional portrayal of her. She comes off as an unwavering smartass--too glib, too poker-faced-- devoid of any outward vulnerability that would have allowed me to feel some empathy with her. Even though she's addicted to drugs. 

Poor girl.

Then you've got the players. An endless series of them. There are supposedly many big recognizable  names here, but they're all under pseudonym. So you've got "Player X" over there. Yeah, so what? Would have been more intriguing, since this is a true story, if we had a clue as to who they really were.

And then you've got Jessica Chastain's boobs.  They're a running joke here.There isn't one damn scene in the movie where they're not commanding our attention, as she wears nothing but low-cut tops throughout. Even in the private consultation scenes with her lawyer. What's the point? I'm not sure, but she's making a couple of big ones.  

When the feds finally nab her, the story question becomes will she be able to avoid the slammer and get off with a relative slap on the wrist, through the machinations of her powerhouse attorney, Charlie Jaffey (Idris Elba). After all, it's not as if she were dangerous...like a politician or something!  

Molly's Game is currently ranking high on the Netflix popularity list.

Grade:  C

 JILL'S TAKE

After the two cinematic losers we've recently reviewed on Netflix, I felt Molly's Game was a definite step up. The opening ski scenes were worth the price of admission. (In Netflix' case, that's pretty darn cheap!) And I can totally understand why, after a crippling injury that ended her dreams of becoming the next Lindsey Vonn, Jessica Chastain's character became emotionally numb. Not a bad trait if you want to run high stakes poker games.

The gamblers were fun to watch. From the best poker player, Player X, portrayed convincingly by Michael Cera (Juno) to the worst--'Bad Brad' (Brian D'Arcy James/Spotlight), who lost incredible amounts of money only to make it up by adding many of these wealthy players to his hedge fund client list. And then there was Harlan Eustace (great cameo by Bill Camp) who came into the game late, couldn't stop raking in the chips until he got bluffed out of all his winnings by none other than Bad Brad. Downhill he went. Seriously downhill. (I was sure he was going to jump off the hotel balcony....)

One last actor I want to mention: Jeremy Strong. He played Molly Bloom's first ( and last!) unsavory boss. Berating her for bringing the wrong store-bought bagels. At first, I didn't know where I'd seen him recently. Then I remembered. He plays the weak son in HBO's hit series "Succession." Kudos, Jeremy. You do unsavory very well.

Because Molly's Game is based on a real person, I forgave the talkiness. And believe me, there were some talkfests in this film. I also loved the ending. But I'm not about to spill the beans in case you decide to watch it.

Grade: B -

THE PLATFORM (2019)

Rated: NR

STARS: Ivan Massague, Zorion Eguileor, Antonia San Juan
DIRECTOR: Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia
GENRE: Horror/ Science Fiction

It's "trickle down economics" taken to it's most literal extreme! The Platform, from Spanish director Galder-Gaztelu-Urrutia, is a crazy gross-out horror flick that wants to deliver a message about the haves and the have-nots, and how the haves are selfish and disdainful of those below them (in today's world the haves are the ones who got there early enough to scarf up all the toilet paper, and the rest of your asses be damned). But it's the same point Bernie Sanders has been making since day one in a much less cringeworthy fashion.   

Goreng (Ivan Massague) wakes up in this weird dystopian prison facility, and is informed by his older cellmate, Trimagasi (Zorion Eguileor) of how things work. There are over two hundred levels in this place, and the ones on the top level eat like kings, then a platform with their leftovers on it gets sent down this big elevator shaft to the lower levels. Depending on what level you're on, you may get to eat, or you may not get to eat. 

Trimagasi has it down pat. You eat like a pig for the few minutes the platform stops at your level, before it starts descending and making its next stops. Prisoners get shuffled around periodically to different levels, so those at the bottom are not always stuck there and vice-versa. Don't get too used to your good fortune, because it's only temporary.  Kinda like real life on any level. 

I have always found it disgusting watching people eat, and this guy shoveling it into his pie hole is the first gross-out moment. But when it turns cannibalistic, The Platform reaches a new level of depravity.

Others come along, men and women--they seem to just drop in on Goreng--and there's even a little "dirty" sex on the menu (between people who must not have showered for months or years). People get peed on. People get shat upon. There were many look-away moments for me.

Goreng maintains his humanity to some degree (for a cannibal), and laments that if everyone took only what they needed, there'd be enough to go around for all. 

The Platform is not for polite company. Unless you have a dark, dark, sense of humor and a strong stomach, you'll want to skip this barf-inducing bonanza.

Now playing on Netflix.

Grade:  D

JILL'S TAKE

'Barf-inducing bonanza.' I like it, Timoteo. (How 'bout 'an upchuck extravaganza' or 'puke-worthy cinema'?) All I can say about this weird, weird film is: I am very impressed. Not with The Platform but with the fact that my co-writer actually watched it all the way through! I did, too. (While I was trying to eat my dinner....)

Let me start with the good stuff. I thought the opening theme music was pretty darn spooky. (Buen trabajo, Senor Calleja!)

I wish I had more to say about this film. Nothing stirs my craving for vicarious violence more than a good prison drama. But once it's set in the future, I lose interest. And I found the premise a bit repetitive. I mean how much food, in various states of disgustingness, can you keep offering the viewer?

Sadly, the recent movies on Netflix leave a lot to be desired. Not so with the bingeworthy series such as "Ozark," "Rectify," "Unbelievable," "Hell On Wheels," "Frankie & Grace," to name a few.  But we can't exactly review episode-by-episode, can we. So far, we've been opining about unadulterated dreck. But just like real life right now, I'm hoping things'll get better soon!

Grade: F

THE LAST THING HE WANTED (2020)

Rated:  R

STARS: Anne Hathaway, Ben Affleck, Willem Dafoe, Rosie Perez
DIRECTOR: Dee Rees
GENRE: Drama/Political Thriller


We open in 1982, and Elena McMahon (Anne Hathaway), a reporter for the Atlantic Post, and her colleague Alma (Rosie Perez) are in El Salvador during that country's civil war--doing what journalists often do. Poking their noses into dangerous situations for the sake of getting a story,

Later, McMahon gets reassigned to cover Ronald Reagan's 1984 reelection bid (funny...it's still 1984) and she's not happy. She cuts out on the campaign to be with her ailing and addled father, Dick (Willem Dafoe). Dick McMahon is involved in some illegal arms dealings to Central America, and he's on the hook for a half million bucks. He needs to get a load of weapons shipped down there and collect his payment. But he can't handle it himself. So he asks his daughter to fly down and facilitate the operation. By doing so, she's placing herself in a highly volatile and unpredictable situation. 

At what point would a normal person say, "No dad...that's crazy!" Apply a little tough love. But she agrees to do it, because as it eventually hit me...she's an adrenaline freak! (Despite the appearance that she's just a dedicated journalist ready to go where the action is.) Adrenalin junkies always need more, until one day...poof!--they've checked out of this world way too early.  

A little history refresher might be in order. In 1979, the left-wing Sandinistas overthrew the dictator in Nicaragua. Ronald Reagan was afraid it might trigger revolution throughout the region, and threaten U.S. security. The U.S. secretly funded the right-wing contras, who were fighting to overthrow the Sandinistas, even though such activity had been outlawed by congress. Much of the funding had come from Nicaragua's cocaine trade. Reagan continued to support the contras on the sly, and the resulting scandal threatened to take down his presidency. 

It is against this backdrop that the delusional Elena thinks she'll just go down there and complete her father's transaction, like an everyday trip to the bank.

Elena has pieced things together, and she wants to blow the lid off the whole she-bang. Ben Affleck is a high ranking government official who's trying to keep her from learning too much, which necessitates getting her into bed to gain her trust. (She's so sympatico!) She'll try to pump him for whatever information she can get. As she says, "I came for the money, I stay for the scoop."

The Last Thing He Wanted, adapted from Joan Didion's last novel, seems torn between wanting to be a personal or a political story. The political is settled history. We've been there, done that. It should provide a context to move Elena's story along, but not be constantly distracting us from it. We want to develop some empathy with Elena, but it's difficult when there are so many shadowy players to  keep track of. Whose side are each of them on? It keeps you guessing for sure, but it's like a crossword puzzle you will never finish because you've only figured out some of the answers.

The movie's strong points are its cinematography; its authentic sense of time and place; and the ratcheting up of tension with escalating dramatic music. And the heavyweights who play the heavies. Hathaway is in constant woman-running-from-bad-shit mode, but she looks good all sweaty and stuff. And a more mature Rosie Perez sans makeup is quite appealing as well. 

There's a twisty and twisted surprise ending. But how kind can you be to a film that will do any appalling thing for shock value? (When the dog appears, look away.)  

From Netflix studios.

Grade:  C

JILL'S TAKE

Thank god for Tim! Reading his review explained what this blankety-blank-blank movie was all about. I didn't have a clue. I kept muttering to my cat, "Is Ben Affleck a bad guy or a good guy? Is Willem DaFoe's character dead now or still alive? Did that actor who played the gay bon vivant also play Truman Capote?"(Toby Jones) But the question I kept on repeating to my furry friend was "When will this turkey ever end???!!

I've often wondered whether Netflix accepts films that the producers know will bomb in regular movie theaters. It would appear so if The Last Thing He Wanted is any example. Speaking of which, who is the "he" in that mysterious title? (Maybe it was a typo and they meant to call it The Last Thing She Wanted?)

If you have a secret desire to see Ann Hathaway's breast – at least one of them—then turn on this baffling and battle-weary film. My advice? Read the book instead. (Joan Didion had to have done a better job with the story-telling than African American female director Dee Rees.)

Grade: F