Take Shelter (2011)

☆ ☆ ☆

Take Shelter (2011) – J. Nichols

A movie as full of pregnant moments as any I have seen.  Curtis (Michael Shannon) begins to have ominous visions of an impending storm which leads him to get a loan to expand the family’s underground storm shelter, complete with gas masks).  But all is not as it seems, Curtis’ mother has been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia (years earlier) and Michael fears that the same terror is descending upon him.  Shannon and Jessica Chastain as his wife demonstrate their strong acting chops as calamity sets in; coping with mental illness isn’t easy and even more so when you have a deaf child (played by Tova Stewart who is actually deaf).  But everything is portentous, looming in the future, and the movie takes its time showing Curtis unravelling in the small Ohio town where they live (destroying the important relationships they have with others).  The trick that director Jeff Nichols is trying to pull off is to treat this heavy material as a thriller – with its foreboding tone – and it works all the way up until it doesn’t. I mean WTF was that ending?  The screenplay invalidates itself in the final moments, undercutting the experiences of everyone onscreen, and concluding with no denouement.  I guess we still witnessed great acting tackling a real social problem but alas.

First Man (2018)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

First Man (2018) – D. Chazelle

I enjoyed director Damien Chazelle’s last two films (La La Land, 2016; Whiplash, 2014) – he’s a master of film technique.  I also enjoy films that take place in outer space (e.g., Gravity, 2013; but not that one by Ron Howard).  However, First Man is rather grim; it is essentially a biopic of Neil Armstrong (Ryan Gosling) who, if this depiction is accurate, was an exceptionally serious man who kept his emotions bottled up and was distant from his family.  Gosling is solid in the part but it is hard to feel affection for Armstrong (even as he suffers the death of his daughter and many of his astronaut colleagues).  More sympathy is generated for his wife, Janet (Claire Foy), who suffers from his psychological distance and the risks that he is undergoing that threaten to traumatise her kids and destabilise their family.  But hey, this is the Space Race.  Chazelle does try to contextualise the events being shown with shots of protests (set to Gil Scott-Heron’s Whitey’s on the Moon), so it isn’t all awestruck wonder at the achievement.  But there is that too.  Chazelle’s technique carries us along as Buzz and Neil finally arrive on the surface despite some tension-building hiccups.  Hard to imagine how the real thing was accomplished with 50-year-old technology.  In the end, the film avoids being drawn on where we should be today, deciding to leave political questions aside in favour of a more trad biopic focus.  I’m still interested to see where Chazelle’s talent takes him.

Widows (2018)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Widows (2018) – S. McQueen

I’m not familiar with the original British TV series from the ‘80s that spawned this film but that didn’t reduce my enjoyment (even though or perhaps because it was transposed to Chicago). Liam Neeson is the head of a squad of thieves who get caught by the S.W.A.T. team in their final heist and blown to smithereens.  When those whose money was stolen (and blown up) come calling, the widows of the dead crooks, led by Viola Davis, use a notebook left by Neeson (her husband) to plan a new heist to pay them back.  Michelle Rodriguez and Elizabeth Debicki are the other two widows and Cynthia Erivo joins them as the getaway driver.  Colin Farrell also stars as the classic corrupt Chicago politician (inheriting office from his dad, Robert Duvall) who is competing with the local black gang leaders (Brian Tyree Henry and Daniel Kaluuya) for the seat.  It’s fun because women of colour aren’t usually in these roles and director Steve McQueen makes the most of the set-up – including with some plot twists and turns – but in the end, there’s nothing too deep here.  For thriller fans, something different!

Johnny O’Clock (1947)

☆ ☆ ☆

Johnny O’Clock (1947) – R. Rossen

Dick Powell made a successful career transition from “juvenile” singer/dancer (e.g., 42^nd Street, 1933) to film noir protagonist (e.g., Murder, My Sweet, 1944), with a surprising amount of edge and darkness in his later films.  But as Johnny O’Clock, a casino money-man, he seems unsure of himself in a role that requires him to be cold and selfish but also warm toward women in trouble and ultimately okay with a chummy police detective (Lee J. Cobb).  It’s possible that the events of the film have unsettled him:  his former partner, a bad cop who kills for the casino and wants a better deal, is now going over his head to the boss (Thomas Gomez) whose wife is Johnny’s ex (but still in love with Johnny who is uninterested). When the cop’s young girlfriend turns up dead, Johnny and the girl’s sister (Evelyn Keyes) investigate (as does Cobb) and fall in love.  Soon, Johnny’s on the outs with everyone and we know who is responsible, probably before he does (but he soon enough does).  Despite the interesting cast, there isn’t enough noir bite here – possibly because we can’t really like or dislike Johnny or even feel sorry for him.  First time director Robert Rossen would produce a real noir classic with his next film, Body and Soul (also 1947), aided by Abraham Polonsky’s script.  This one’s okay but if you’re new to noir, start your journey somewhere else.

  

In the Realms of the Unreal (2004)

☆ ☆ ☆ 

In the Realms of the Unreal (2004) -- J. Yu

Henry Darger's Outsider Art is groovy indeed, but somehow I got bogged down in this documentary (even at 80 minutes) but that could be, you know, MY problem. (2010 Review)

Let the Right One In (2008)

☆ ☆ ☆

Let the Right One In (2008) -- T. Alfredson

Chilly prepubescent Swedish arthouse vampire movie -- not scary, rather gruesome and, for me, somehow sterile and uninvolving. (2010 Review)

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)

☆ ☆ ☆

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) -- D. Fincher

In the old Hollywood parlance, this is what would be called a prestige picture (and a high concept one at that). You can see the money on the screen, in the computer wizardry and the often strikingly beautiful images. But the sentimentality drifts into schmaltz and the film feels too long by half. I also hope I never have to see another framing story with old people telling their kids about their lives (as we fade into voice-over...). (2010 Review)