Movie: War for the Planet of the Apes

The third movie in the rebooted franchise, it manages to connect some of the final dots between the original and the reboot. However, it also manages to be the weakest movie with a far less compelling plot. There are a few highlight scenes; but I generally found it to be boring and rather compelling.

Movie: The Promise

The Promise is a bit of a complicated movie - of two facets - a semi documentary on the Armenian genocide; and a complicated romantic story involving two different love triangles. 

On a cinematic portrayal of the Armenian genocide; it is a stunning story that manages to easily show how it comes to arise, the complications on reporting on it, and the challenges on trying to save survivors. In this aspect, The Promise, really delivers with great performances from the cast in this regard. 

The love triangle however, makes little sense, distracts from the movie and really cheapens an otherwise great story-telling feat. The weakest parts of the movie, by far, are the complications arising from the love triangle; and there is really no need for this. In fact, the entire storyline could have hinged on the main characters being good friends - one does not need to be lovers in order to try save the persecuted! It is a distraction, that really damages an otherwise less reported story.

Movie: Silence

Martin Scorsese's passion project spanning over 25 years, Silence, tracks the mission of two Jesuit priests in Japan. It's a beautifully shot movie - with stunning cinematography -  but it is difficult to judge the movie beyond its visual merits.

Primarily - this is a movie about faith and culture; and about changes in both. The story takes place at a time where Christians are persecuted for their faith; as the Japanese traditionalists see the usurping religion replacing, not only Buddhism, but also the traditions of Japan. This resistance is itself not investigated in detail - but rather, the persecution and the hiding from this persecution becomes the centre of this story; leading to torture and death - of both villagers and priests. 

My own interpretation is that this is a movie about Christianity (and by extent, Western civilisation)'s cultural superiority - about how people would rather convert, suffer and die, rather than stay in their own culture. It is unsettling and ultimately unsatisfactory - because in the end; there is very little looking at why - why would they convert? why are the officials unhappy? 

Movie: The Accountant

The Accountant seems to be tailor made for Ben Afleck (or Keanu Reeves) - an autistic savant numbers person, who happens to be the tax guy for the mob, and basically does not have any emotional responses to most situations in the movie. The plot line is barely believable, but does manage to have some good action scenes; and while the autism drives a large part of the story it seems more of a crutch to make something more of a rather ordinary movie plot. It is fun though - so at least it has some entertainment value.

Movie: Hell or High Water

I wasn't sure that I would enjoy a pseudo-western, set in rural Texas - but Hell or High Water managed to convert a story of two bank robbing brothers to a story with depth examining a lot of social issues of poor (white) America. This is really a story about loan sharks (dressed as bankers), stagnant wages, gun culture, joblessness, abusive parents and the impact on their grown children, greed and Jeff Bridges in a brilliant performance of a cranky, but great, detective. It's a story that you start rooting for the bad guys (or at least one of the brothers); and the story somehow manages to achieve some sort of balance between heartache, justice and no-result ... a compromise that no one likes but strangely seems to work.

Movie: Hacksaw Ridge

Hacksaw Ridge is often commented as Mel Gibson's redemption - a story of a conscientious objector, who refuses to touch a rifle, but still serves (as a medic) in the front lines in the Pacific Front in WW2, and manages to save many soldiers in very dire circumstances. And while the movie is does, rightfully, portray Desmond Doss (played by Andrew Garfield) in a heroic light - the treatment of the enemy as subhuman, without any redeeming qualities, in my mind does nothing to redeem Mel Gibson. Yes, this is a war movie, written by the victors - but for all of the heroics of Desmond Doss, there was no righteous side.

Movie: Fences

The performance is like a play - very strong dialogue and minimal changes in sets - but that does not distract from some amazing performances; especially Viola Davies and Denzel Washington. Set in the late 50's; it's the story of a low skilled worker; a garbage collector - partly his reminisces and partly a story about the conflicts in his current life. It's a difficult story, about sacrifices, about difficulties of racial discrimination, of difficult upbringing, of living paycheck to paycheck, of community and above else relationships. But it's the performances that is the real highlight of the movie. 

Movie: Moonlight

There has been a lot written about Moonlight already - especially after the Oscars best picture presentation debacle - a low budget movie, featuring African-American cast, on a story of three parts of a young man - first as a boy, then a teenager and then a young man - charting his life through bullying, sexuality, poverty and drugs. There are incredible characters - be it Mahershala Ali's brilliant portrayal of the caring drug dealer; the protagonist Chiron, or even the bullies - it's a story that really sucks you in. The cinematography is stunning - especially the camera work in the opening scenes, where there is very little dialogue. 

Underlying this tale is also a tale of love - partially unrequited, and sexuality; themes that the other contender for best picture this year also had - but there is no real competition in who did it better. Moonlight is gritty, it is mostly sad, but it is engrossing and heartwarming none the less. It deserves all its honours.

Movie: Hidden Figures

In a time where exclusion or special treatment, based on nationality, race, religion or sexual orientation, is a easily highlighted problem - especially with politicians promoting such exclusions - Hidden Figures manages to portray the power of inclusiveness; and what that can contribute to monumental achievements. 

Based on the true story of how a group of brilliant black women mathematicians and engineers were instrumental in NASA's space program - this is a super-charged tale of the fight against racial discrimination and gender discrimination to achieve some of the biggest achievements of humanity. 

There are some embellishments to the story - in the name of dramatisation I am sure - but it is an achievement on its own to weave the various elements into a comprehensive tale. The performance as impressive - perfectly showcasing the grit and determination required to survive, as well as the impact of the humiliation and obstacles in the way. 

In the time we live, this is what we need to remind ourselves on what diversity brings to the table; to remind ourselves what the forgotten and the disenfranchised could potentially contribute to our society if they were able to.

Movie: Denial

The central plot of the movie is the libel case brought by noted holocaust denier David Irving, against American historian Deborah Lipstadt; which ends up being a great court room drama on defending the idea that the holocaust happened. 

But in the modern day news environment it highlights a larger issue - how difficult it is for truth to overcome deliberate falsehood; and how difficult it is for the lay person to identify the nuances between fake and real events. This is not about the easily overturned items that populated the tabloid press - but rather the nuanced ideas from otherwise reputable persons (as in the case of David Irving - who, according to Wikipedia still has notable biographies and historical studies to his name). We see this often with climate science denial, and previously in research into effects of smoking - deliberate misdirection and misinformation is difficult to identify, and ultimately leads to mass confusion.

Overall, Denial is an ok movie; and a great primer to the key issues of the court case. The long slog to prove something that is so well documented and researched as the Holocaust proves that the fight against fake news has a long road ahead.

Movie: La La Land

I am not sure why there is such a buzz around this movie - in fact, one of the scathing reviews on IMDB manages to capture the movie in one word - insipid. The opening scene was annoying, with wooden dancing performance, and adding no value to the plot or other redeeming features. It doesn't really get better - and although Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone provide strong acting performances, their singing and dancing hardly light up the screen.

 

In fact, the movie is somewhat Bollywoodish as opposed to a musical - given than songs and dancing are a relatively small part of the movie - and perhaps they should have taken a leaf out of Bollywood and dubbed the singing! It's a movie about Hollywood, so, perhaps like Argo, that is the reason for all the rage. I found it uninspiring and mostly boring - I would recommend avoiding.

Movie: Lion

Some times the truth is stranger than fiction - Lion traces the remarkable story of a poor young boy in rural India who gets separated from his older brother, and ends up in Kolkata (then Calcutta). For a while he lives on the streets, but is later placed in an orphanage and thereafter adopted by an Australian couple. Years later, he starts looking for his home - now enabled by technology (Google Earth and Google in general), and is memories. 

It is a beautiful film with some really strong performances - not only by the adult lead in Dev Patel (Slumdog Millionaire fame) but also the performance of Sunny Pawar as the 5 year old Saroo. The story is itself moving but it more than just the story - it is the performance of the ensemble cast, the locations and finally capturing both the joys and hardships. It's somewhat strange that this move doesn't have a stronger billing ...

Movie: Manchester by the Sea

While there are movies that explore heartache and grief, Manchester by the Sea manages to explore it in such an intense set of layers, that it is good that the story is fictional - one man surely does not deserve that much bad luck. But more than grief, it also explores the intractability of a community that is just not able to forgive - even when it is a mistake - something that comes up again and again with released prisoners who have served their time. It is slow and sad - but somewhat surprisingly a great cinematic experience.

Movie: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

The book was sort of an encyclopedia, and JK Rowling has taken it to a rumoured 5-movie series expanding the Harry Potter universe. Undoubtedly, the strength of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, is the creativity in the conceptualisation of these magical beasts, although Eddie Redmayne's portrayal as a bumbling scientist magician (is there even such a thing?) is also notable. The movie plot is basic, and rather mundane - and the whole magic vs humans story-line resembles the X-Men story-line a bit too much. Undoubtedly, other fictional universes have handled the whole human vs magical worlds better - The Nightwatch Series comes to mind; and while the backstory is interesting - this seems far too much like a commercial expansion for the sake of commercialisation rather than expanding the literary world of Harry Potter universe.

Movie: Dr Strange

Strangely, the magical base of Dr Strange, is more realistic than most of Marvel's other long running series. I did not grow up reading comics, and my only exposure is through the various movie franchises. Dr Strange was one of the better movies - it still has the same formula; flawed character of great promise, who discovers something special, and then has to defend the world from destruction; but it was well paced, and fun - and a lot less America centric.

Movie: Arrival

I have not seen a movie at the theatre for a while; and eventually we decided to just go and watch something that looked interesting; without necessarily knowing what it was about. Arrival was more than a pleasant surprise - no hype (as with Interstellar, The Martian or Gravity), the movie explores first contact with an alien species. 

And the aliens are strange - they make indecipherable noises, their space craft and environment looks out of the world, they have technology that we cannot currently fathom, and they are not green men with big heads - but are rather like giant squids. 

While the story is set around first contact - it is a lot more. It asks some deep philosophical questions - on how language and the nature of language influences thought and actions; on how mis-communication leads to bad decisions, on how humans will actually deal with the knowledge of an alien species, on how talking heads on TV can easily whip up misinformation into panic and the question for the ages: on the nature of choice and fate.

This is a stunning movie with an amazing lead performance by Amy Adams in the lead role. As far as random choices and selections go - this was hitting the jackpot!

Movie: Where to Invade Next

Michael Moore's latest documentary is a sarcastic take on US invasions - instead of military conquests; how about implementing ideas that expand the social good - such as universal healthcare, universal higher education, maternal leave etc. As Michael states at the beginning, the documentary is about picking flowers and leaving out the weeds; and in many ways it mirrors the leftist agendas of Bernie Sanders, Jeremy Corbyn and in many respects the South Africa's EFF. It doesn't present any political propositions - just that other countries have managed to do a lot more to achieve equality; and that these should be ideals to pursue.

Movie: Macbeth

Last year's film production of Macbeth, has been on the South African circuit for a while - but M and I kept postponing for various reasons. I have seen a fair number of productions - on stage, filmed versions of stage productions and movies - and in my opinion; this is one of the best, if not the best, version of Shakespeare's classic. 

In terms of movie versions - the production and set design; coupled with the amazingly haunting soundtrack has not been matched. Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard give a terrific performance; as do the rest of the cast; but there are subtle changes in the screenplay (no deviations in the storyline or dialogue beyond some shortening) that really brings it to life. The brutal opening battle scene (where the witches seem to be keeping watch), the addition of the fourth (non speaking) young witch, the scene of Banqo's demise and Fleance's getaway - and even the ending with Fleance and Macbeth's sword - they all bring a new dimension to a very well known play.

Movie Lies

Information is Beautiful has a wonderful set of infographics detailing the accuracy of movies to real life - on a scene by scene basis. I have only looked at a few - but it is quite fascinating how some of the movies diverge and how, sometimes, the over the top scenes are not lies (in Wolf of Wall Street off course :))

Movie: The Big Short

The Big Short is somewhat like a re-enactment movie from the History Channel - with a bit less voice over, way better acting and arguably far more informative. Charting the path of three groups of investors who went against the established understanding of the US housing market - it is probably the most easily communicated story on the 2007 financial crisis. 

The negativity and the derision received by the three groups is in itself enlightening - how people in general do not like to hear contrarian positions; and how difficult it is to motivate contrarian positions. In addition, the story makes a very pointed link that the financial crisis was not just as a result of people who did not pay careful attention - but rather, that the position was a direct result of fraud and abuse of insider knowledge. 

And most worryingly, because the underlying cause of the 2007 meltdown was not really addressed - it is likely to occur again.