I have never seen a movie that made me want to take a shower more than Miss Sloane.

Miss Sloane shone a light on the career of political lobbyists, and that light make them scurry for the shade.  No, really… this movie showed these people as the slimiest and most repugnant people around.  They made them seem considerably worse than members of Congress…I know right?

In fact, there is the typical scene where the lobbyists have members of Congress on each side and they have to swing certain ones over to their side to win a vote.  It was like the scenes in American President with Annette Bening… except with Bening not being the sweetheart she was.  I don’t know if I can watch that scene again without wondering what dirty trick is really going down.

Jessica Chastain played Elizabeth Sloane, one of Washington’s most successful and downright rotten lobbyists around.  When a bill attempting to place restrictions on guns comes to the floor of Congress, Sloane leaves her current company to try to help get the bill passed.  And she does just about whatever she needs to do to make it so.  No line is too far to cross.

Of course, opposing her is the NRA and their own bag of dirty tricks and lobbyists willing to do whatever is necessary to win.  Miss Sloane apparently knows all the dirty tricks because she showed a remarkable ability to anticipate what her opponents were planning and to counter that with her own slimy trick.

There were people shown on Sloane’s side that were not as slimy as Sloane herself.  There is Esme (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), who had a good reputation as a knowledgeable worker who had a hidden past with gun violence.  There is Rodolfo Schmidt (Mark Strong) who spear-headed the group trying to get the bill passed and he brought Sloane into the fold.  Some of the other characters on Sloane’s side were interesting, but most of their contributions to the story was to stare, slack-jawed at the things that Sloane would do.

The gun supporting side was basically played off as the heartless villains, but they were still shocked at the lengths stooped to by Sloane.  One of the negative notes of the movie is how the other side was not more positively portrayed.  Gun control does not have to be one side is right, one side is wrong…especially with the lobbyists characters falling so hard into the shades of gray section.

But it is clear that no one is smarter than Miss Sloane, and that is fine, especially since she is such a flawed and downright rotten person.  She is played brilliantly by Jessica Chastain and she makes you root for this awful woman, despite the constant travesties that she engages in.  Chastain showed the human side of this woman, creating someone that could easily have been a caricature.

The film was a little long, but the ending payoff is worth the wait.  Yes, it is unrealistic (No SPOILERS), but it paid off the film in a big way.  Kudos to not only Chastain, but also John Lithgow, who played a senator in charge of a Congressional hearing into Sloane’s business practices.  Their showdown was high drama.

Never once did the fact that Miss Sloane was a powerful woman come into play, and I liked that very much.  This was not a story about a powerful woman taking on the NRA, but a powerful lobbyist doing the same.  It felt as if we had taken a step past identifying her as a woman.  She just was.  That is a great thing.

As I said, the whole story pays off big time, but the suspension of disbelief is remarkably high.  If you cannot accept that, Miss Sloane is going to fall apart for you.  I had no problem with the end, so I really did enjoy the film.  I do wish the pro-gun side would have been less villainized, but I understand why they did it.

Jessica Chastain is excellent and the character of Miss Sloane is an enigmatic woman who wants to win above almost anything else.  She does not need to be seen as a hero.  In fact, she is as dirty as any of them.  However, she is shown as a complex and real person who has reasons for her choices.

Our political system really is messed up.

4 stars

I was completely enthralled with Nocturnal Animals.  I even had considered, as I sat in the theater, the possibility that this would become my favorite film of the year. However, I was not a fan of the ending of the movie, so I dropped it down a few notches.

Then, I was reflecting upon it and listened to some theories about the ending.  These were some ideas that I had not considered.  This is one of the reasons I really enjoyed this film.  There were a lot of layers to the movie, and you really had to think about what you were seeing.

Susan Morrow (Amy Adams) was an artist with a successful exhibit and career, a handsome husband (Armie Hammer) and lots of money and yet she was wallowing in her unhappiness.  When a manuscript for a novel, dedicated to Susan, arrived from her ex-husband Edward (Jake Gyllenhaal), she found herself emotionally invested in the story.

It is at this point where the second narrative of this film begins to be told.  As Susan read the novel, the audience began to see a visualization of the story through Susan’s POV.  She placed Edward in the role of Tony Hastings, the novel’s main character.

In the novel, Tony and his wife (Isla Fisher) and daughter (Ellie Bamber) are on a road trip through Texas when a group of scoundrels and troublemakers run them off the road.  Led by real lowlife Ray (Aaron-Taylor Johnson), the men wind up abducting Tony’s wife and daughter, leaving Tony alone and stranded in the Texas wilds.

Tony is able to find his way to the police and eventually, police officer Bobby Andes (Michael Shannon) arrived to try and help Tony.

There is actually a third strand of story here as well as we get flashbacks to the time when Edward and Susan first met and began becoming involved in a relationship.

Amazingly enough, all three narratives have through lines that work as metaphors for what was happening.  There are so many layers to this film that you will be thinking about it well after you walk out of the theater.  I know that happened for me.  There were things that I had not considered at first that, upon reflection, make perfect sense.  This is a beautifully crafted tale and the three different narratives work very well together.

The performances are awesome.  In particular, Michael Shannon as Bobby is one of the best characters in any movie this year.  I believe Shannon is a lock for an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor.  Bobby’s dogged determination drove Tony to seek justice for his family and inspired the weak-willed husband and father to continue to push for revenge.

Nocturnal Animals is very dark and troubling.  It seemed to strive to make the viewer uncomfortable, dealing with issues that were remarkably troubling.  This included one of the most initially disturbing opening credits scene that I have ever seen.  Yet, again upon reflection, see the metaphor that director Tom Ford was going for.  The idea of being completely free is a wonderful feeling that so few of us are able to feel, and it is certainly on display here.

And this film is gorgeous.  There are countless visual moments throughout the film that is meant to shock, entice or appall you.  There are several images that cross over between the three narratives that it is apparent that they are intentional.  Some are subtle, but some are  painfully apparent.  At all times, the imagery is one of beauty, even those times when the imagery is gruesome or painful.

Nocturnal Animals is a brilliant film, with remarkably intelligent writing, and perfect performances.  It is a film that will stick with you well after you have seen it, and you might have to see it again to fully appreciate what you have seen.

4.85 stars

Jeff Nichols wrote and directed Loving, the story of an interracial couple from Virginia in the late 1950s who decide to get married and wind up getting arrested.

You see, in Virginia at the time, it was illegal for people of different races to marry, so when Richard (Joel Edgerton) and Mildred (Ruth Negga) drove up to Washington, D.C. to get married, they knew the dangers of returning to Virginia.

Still, the couple did return to the state and began living as husband and wife.  Someone turned them in, and, before you knew it, the Lovings were in jail.  After pleading guilty, the couple were sentenced to leave Virginia for 25 years.

However, Mildred was pregnant, and really wanted Richard’s mother (Sharon Blackwood) to deliver the baby, so they sneaked back into the state for the birth.  This led to them being arrested again.

After this, they returned to D.C. to continue living their lives until a near tragedy caused Mildred to want to return to the country life of Virginia.  Setting themselves up in a rural home, the Lovings planned on living the remainder of their lives in quiet isolation.

Mildren, though, had written a letter to Bobby Kennedy, who redirected the letter to the ACLU, who hooked them up with a lawyer (Nick Kroll) who saw this as an opportunity to take biracial marriages to the Supreme Court.

This is all quite amazing of a story, and is all the more amazing when you know that this is a true story.

I enjoyed this movie, mainly because of the amazing performances of its two lead stars.  Joel Edgerton is unrecognizable, diving into the character of Richard, while Ruth Negga (who starred in this year’s hit show Preacher) is just astounding as Mildred.  It is very possible that Negga will receive an Oscar nomination for the role.  Both performances were very understated and subtle.  They were a couple who just wanted two live their lives in peace where they wanted to live.

Michael Shannon had a small role here, but he brought his best once again.  This has been a strong year for Shannon.

The film did drag at times, and it took several time jumps that did not feel right.  The pacing issues aside, this film was pretty solid.  There was never that jump up and hit you moment of emotion, but there was pretty consistent emotional taps throughout.

I would have liked to see more of the Supreme Court scene, as very little of the argument was presented.

It is another reminder of how sad it is that some humans can be so full of hate over things such as the color of a person’s skin.  The fact there were once laws like this on the books in the USA is a shameful moment in our history.

4 stars

‘Tis the season to be jolly.

Or, at least, to giggle a little bit.

Office Christmas Party is the newest holiday fare with your typical wild party hi jinks.  You’ve seen that before. This time, the wild party is being held at an office of a business desperately trying to stay afloat.

When his mean sister Carol (Jennifer Aniston) threatens to close down the company, Clay (TJ Miller) and his co-worker Josh (Jason Bateman) try to grab a huge account and save the jobs of their employees by throwing a huge Christmas party.  And, of course, things get out of hand.

This movie was okay, but not great.  There were not too many really great laughs.  The issue with that is there should have been.  It relies on the old standby jokes of drug culture and sexual innuendo and most of them seem dull by comparison.  The film wants to be lewd and over-the-top, but it does not feel that way.

That is a shame, because the cast of this film is extremely strong and indelibly likable.  Jason Bateman, TJ Miller, Jennifer Aniston, Olivia Munn, Kate McKinnon, Rob Corddry, Courtney B. Vance, and Jillian Bell all appear here and are actors who are fun to watch and who I generally like.  Unfortunately, most of them could have stronger characters to portray.  Aniston is basically playing the same bad boss character that she has played several times.  Bateman is playing Jason Bateman.  And yet, there was just something about these people that made me not hate this film.  I found myself rooting for them and that was surprising.

Yes, the story was very thin. and there were many ridiculous things that happened, but none of it felt obnoxious.  It just was.

If this cast had a better story, this could have been a really surprising movie.  There were moments of good work, and there was some possibility with the brother sister relationship between Miler and Aniston’s characters, but most of the really solid characters moments were buried beneath the excesses of indulgence that populated most of this movie.  The office party was too much of the film and took it to levels that were just impossible to believe.

The biggest issue was there were just not enough really laugh out loud scenes.  I did giggle a few times, and (maybe) even guffawed once.  There was just not enough of that to justify the rest.

There were some fun secondary characters, including the security guard Carla (Da’Vine Joy Randolph) who had a fixation on Die Hard, the Uber driver Lonny (Fortune Feimster) who has some of the better dialogue in the film, and unappreciated assistant Allison (Vanessa Bayer) who attracts the wrong type of man. These were fun characters that helped the film, but there was just too many other moments that were not funny.

I liked watching this film, but I did not love it, and, with the ensemble of this film, that is a shame.  It is worlds better than Bad Santa 2 (ironically, probably not as funny, though) so if you want a new Christmas movie for the year, this might be your best bet.

2.5 stars

I kept thinking through this whole movie just how long ago did they film this?  How long had this been on the shelf because the young boy starring in Incarnate is David Mazouz, who plays Bruce Wayne on Fox’s Gotham series, and he looks so different now…so much older.  Young Bruce Wayne is very close to a man.  Here he was just a little boy.  So why am I just now seeing this film.  Could it be because it is a bad movie?

In the 1980s, Marvel Comics put out a comic called “Nightmask” in their New Universe imprint where the main character could jump into the mind of sleeping people and help them out.  I always believed that Nightmask would have made an interesting movie.

It seems that Incarnate is evidence to the contrary.

Now, I did not completely hate this movie.  I mean, WWE superstar Mark Henry makes a cameo.  Um…

The film has Aaron Eckhart.

Hm.  That really might be it.

Dr. Seth Ember (Eckhart) is a wheelchair-bound psychic who is hired to help people “possessed” by some kind of spirit.  The film takes the religion out of the exorcism here and made it more scientific, (which was interesting).  Ember had ulterior motives for taking these cases, and that was a chance to go searching for a specific “demon” named Maggie who had killed Ember’s wife and child in a car wreck.  When Maggie takes control of Camreon (Mazouz), she taunts Ember to put himself on line to get his revenge.

The film does have an interesting premise, but there is so much garbage around it that the premise gets lost in the midst of it all.  Emjay Anthony, who is one of my favorite child actors working today (Chef, Bad Moms), is totally wasted here as Ember’s dead son.  The writing is bad and the dialogue is heavy-handed and exposition filled.  They add scenes that make no sense with the story itself.  There is a couple of scenes with Eckhart and one of his friends Felix (Tomas Arana) that basically had nothing to do with the plot of the film.  I’m not sure why that was included at all.

The film brings in the father of Cameron and that character makes zero impact on the film.  It was as if the film just needed material to fill time.

I do believe that Aaron Eckhart was doing what he could to make this movie better.  He wanted to be able to be that actor that can transcend the material and put that film on his back.  He failed here.  Eckhart, up until this point, has had a pretty good year, first in an okay sequel London Has Fallen, and then being the best part of Bleed for This and being just great in Sully, so I know he can bring it.  Unfortunately, this film wasted the efforts of Eckhart and a potentially intriguing twist on the possession movie with poor writing and uninspiring characters that really did not help the narrative.

Plus, the movie implied that there were others beside Ember who had this skill to enter people’s dreams.  The were called incarnates, but this was just tossed in to explain how he could do it and never touched upon again.  This could have really been a strong hook to make this more than just another poorly made movie.

I still would like to see a Nightmask in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  Marvel would know how to handle it.  Incarnate did not.

1.5 stars

I never saw the original Bad Santa.  I know there are a lot of people who consider it to be a raunchy classic, but it never interested me.  So I had no specific desire to see the sequel of the film.  I will say that I did not feel that I needed to see the first film to understand this sequel.  Bad Santa 2 did a good job of presenting us with the premise.

Unfortunately, that was about all that was done well by Bad Santa 2.

Willie Soke (Billy Bob Thornton) is still a down on his luck schmuck trying to get by in life while drinking and being foul mouthed when former partner Marcus (Tony Cox) approaches him with a new plan to rob a charity in Chicago.  However, it wasn’t just Marcus’s plan.  It was Willie’s mother Sunny (Kathy Bates) who came up with the idea and needed her son’s safe cracking skills.

Now, I will say that the first time I saw the trailer for Bad Santa 2, they showed the scene where Willie realizes that his mother is involved, slaps her, and she says, “You still hit like your daddy.”  First time I cracked up but I got quiet quickly because I felt guilty at laughing at that line.  I was also the only person who laughed at that in the theater at that time, so I was feeling a little judged.  But that is the type of humor that one would expect to be in Bad Santa 2.

Truthfully, there was not as many laughs as I thought there would be.  Sure there was some clever nastiness, but most of the time, the script depended on the actor or actress saying the f-word or swearing in some manner to get the audience to laugh.  There were a few clever moments of dialogue that helped the film out, but, after awhile, the f-word isn’t funny by itself.  You need more.

And there was not much more here.  I did find the character of Willie to be interesting, but highly unlikely.  The relationship with Willie and charity organizer Diane Hastings (Christina Hendricks) was completely ridiculous and depended on so much suspension of disbelief that it is unimaginable.  Diane became such an unbelievable character that any positive opinions I might have had about her early was flushed down the commode.

Kathy Bates was really good as Willie’s mother, and the interactions with her and her son were some of the highlights of the movie for me.  The return of actor Brett Kelly as Thurman Merman tried to be the counter agent to the bitterness and vileness of the main antagonist and the others in his circle.  The way the film portrayed this character as almost mentally slow was quite obnoxious.

I still think that most of the funniest parts of the film had already appeared in the trailers for Bad Santa 2.  That is a danger from these comedy film that seems to happen on a regular basis.

The ending of the movie really breaks down and sends this film, that was barely hanging on, into territory of crap.

This sequel certainly did not inspire me to go out and watch the first film, despite people’s comments on it being the much better film.  Bad Santa 2 had a couple of great actors (Bates and Thornton) in a film that was not very funny and depended on the f-word for laughs.  Merry Christmas everyone.

1.9 stars

Howard Hughes is one of the most eccentric and enigmatic figures of the mid 20th century, a man who became known as much for his recluse behavior as for his influence in the aviation industry.  The subject has been an inspiration for Warren Beatty, who has returned to write, direct and star in this film based on the reclusive billionaire’s life.

Rules Don’t Apply, however, is not strictly a biopic on the life of Hughes, as the story centers around the romance of one of the pretty actresses Hughes would bring to Hollywood and sign to exclusive deals and the man who was assigned to drive her.  The story itself about the romance between Frank Forbes (Alden Ehrenreich) and Marla Mabrey  (Lily Collins) is fictional, but many of the things done by Howard Hughes (Warren Beatty) comes from real-life anecdotes about Hughes.

Marla arrives in Hollywood with her Baptist mother (Annette Bening) looking to become an actress.  She is assigned Frank as her driver with the knowledge that if there were any relations between driver and actress, the driver would be fired.

Still, the pair hit it off and Marla caused Frank to question his relationship with fiance Sarah (Taissa Farmiga).

Both Marla and Frank had hopes to meet Howard Hughes, but neither seemed to be getting their wish.

Meanwhile, Howard has been actively trying to ignore the world, particularly the banks who wanted to meet with him about his running of TWA.  There is certainly signs as well that Hughes was beginning to slip into mental issues.

Rules Don’t Apply is a fun movie in many ways.  I found it entertaining and I was engaged early on with the characters.  Then, about midway through the film, it felt like it got lost in the story, losing focus on what the story was truly about, before recapturing it near the end.

The biggest issue was the romance between Marla and Frank.  This relationship was seen at the beginning part of the film, but wound up separating the pair for much of the middle part of the movie.  This did not make much sense.  The first part of the film was so focused on these two characters with Howard Hughes as a supporting character only to flip it completely around about midway through.  Marla disappeared after a tryst with Hughes and the film became about Hughes and the relationship with Hughes and Frank instead of about Frank and Marla.  When she reappeared near the end of the film, Rules Don’t Apply found its story again.

There is a great cast here with such notable actors taking secondary roles such as Matthew Broderick, Candace Bergen, Martin Sheen, Paul Sorvino, Ed Harris, Oliver Platt, Alec Baldwin, Dabney Coleman and Steve Coogan among others.  The list of actors is compelling.  Alden Ehrenreich (as our soon to be young Han Solo) does a really strong job as Frank.  Ehrenreich is a star in the making and you can see here what kind of a career this young man has in front of him.  Lily Collins makes a good lead as well, showing some skills (including singing), and she has good chemistry with Ehrenreich, and maybe even more with Beatty.

Beatty is excellent as Howard Hughes, bringing the confusion and fear of Hughes to life.  You understand why Hughes acts the way he does.  He has daddy issues, and he has fears over losing what he has earned in his life as he realizes that his life is unraveling.

Rules Don’t Apply did get a little long, especially when the film lost focus on what the story they were telling actually was.  It has really good performances and looks great as a period piece of the 1960 Hollywood.  Beatty has a decent film for his return.

3.6 stars

Disney is at it again.

Moana is a wonderful new animated movie from the House of the Mouse that is simply great entertainment for the entire family.

Moana (the debuting Auli’i Cravalho) is the daughter of the Chief (Temuera Morrison) of an island where the people are happy and isolated.  They never go out past the reefs.  The tribe’s rules prohibit it.  So when the ocean chooses Moana to go on a mission, there is conflict.

See, at one point in the past, demigod Maui (Dwayne Johnson) stole the heart of the island goddess Te Fiti in an attempt to create more islands.  Maui was banished from the island and the legends said that only by bringing Maui back over the seas to return the heart could stop the destructive darkness.

As Moana’s island begins to show signs of decay and loss, she sets out to find the mythological demigod and bring him back to save the world.

Moana has a simple story, but that is not a bad thing.  In its simplicity, the story shines.  And because of that, Moana is able to take other Disney tropes and shake them up.  Moana is not a typical Disney princess (despite the joke later in the film that she is) and she does not require anyone else to save her.  I found this female character refreshing and original.

Newcomer Auli’i Cravalho is magnificent in this role.  She makes this character her own immediately and she has unbelievable chemistry with the Rock.  She was cast as a 14-year old freshman in high school over some serious competition for the role, but it was clear that she showed Disney something special and she truly brought it to Moana.

Speaking of the Rock, his portrayal of Maui was note perfect.  I also liked how Maui was basically a likable jerk, which is something that Dwayne Johnson can definitely pull off (if you smell what I’m cooking).  I got a little bit of a “Genie from Aladdin” vibe from Maui, but with much more narcissistic tendencies.  Maui wanted to be the hero, mainly for the adoration of the crowd, not as much because it is the right thing to do.

The music of Moana is beautiful.  The score was written by Mark Mancina and Hamilton’s Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote songs with Opetaia Foa’i  and Mancina.  Auli’i Cravalho’s voice is beautiful and the song performed by The Rock (“You’re Welcome”) is my personal favorite.

I really enjoyed some of the creative secondary characters in this film as well.  The Ocean was an actual character that interacted with Moana.  The chicken Heihei (Alan Tudyk) who was about as dumb (intelligence wise) as it could be.  The villainous Tamatoa (Jemaine Clement) is a giant crab that loved the bright and shiny objects (and sang a great song about it).  And the tattoos on the body of Maui are some of the best parts of this film.  These tats are basically animated and can interact with Maui and can change depending on what happened.  This was genius and a great way to tell the story.  These tats could provide the POV of the audience at home when Maui was being too much of a jerk.  Tremendously creative.

Of course, the animation of Moana is breath-taking.  The shots of Moana and Maui out on the ocean are about as realistic as you are going to find.  Disney continues to up their game in the world of animation with each new release.

Moana has so much heart and love that you cannot help but enjoy this film.  There are so many things going for it that I have a hard time believing that anyone would not have liked this film.

Now, I was not a fan of the animated short that preceded the movie.  Usually these Disney shorts are pretty fun and entertaining, but this one was just a dud.

The Polynesian culture is something that we have never seen on screen before, and this is a huge aspect of the  film.  I love the lead character of Moana, a heroic female who does not fall into the tropes of Disney princesses.  The Rock is always the man.  A beautiful looking, sounding and full of fun movie that is charming throughout and, at times, hilariously funny.  Sure it may be a simple story of a hero’s journey, but that does not mean it is a bad story.  Disney has yet another winner on their hands.

4.6 stars

The new Robert Zemeckis film, Allied, was not one that I thought I was going to enjoy.  Yet, I was surprised at how much I did enjoy the film.

This is really a romance film, which was unexpected.  It was promoted more as a spy thriller set in World War II, but I was as engaged with the relationship early on in the movie as I was with the spy shenanigans at the end.

Max (Brad Pitt) goes on a mission to assassinate a German officer and he hooked up with Marianne (Marion Cotillard) as a partner.  They were pretending to be husband and wife to infiltrate the target’s world and, along the way, they fall in love.  After the mission ended, they went back to London, married and started a family.

Problem.  London intelligence determined that Marianne was not actually who she said she was and was, in truth, a German spy.  They planned on setting her up to prove this story and, if true, wanted Max to execute her.

I was surprised at how connected I felt to Max and Marianne as a couple.  When the whole German spy thing came up, I was never sure if it were true or not.  The film played it coyly throughout, and it kept me uncertain.  I liked that.  I like the fact that I wasn’t sure if Marianne was really a German spy or if it were just British Intelligence messing with them.  I had convinced myself both ways as the film progressed.

There were some pacing issues with the movie.  There were some shots that could have been edited out to bring the run time down a little bit.  I think that would have helped make this feel a tighter story.

Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard were excellent in their roles, and I completely bought them as a couple in love.  I believed completely in Pitt and his conflicted mind as he struggled to prove that his wife was not what she was accused of being.  If these characters were unconvincing, the entire film would fall apart.  They made me believe.

The film was also very much of a throwback to films of yesteryear.  In particular, the film was an homage to Casablanca.  Zemeckis was clearly inspired by those films and wanted to make a film to honor them.

I liked Allied more than I thought I would, and it is nice when a film surprises me.

4 stars