Images courtesy Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.
2/10 In the aftermath of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, so many disillusioned fans were demanding deep and specific revisions that the proposal to make a different version of the installment for each individual viewer became a running gag.
It looks like J.J. Abrams actually got to make his.
Images courtesy Netflix.
9/10 Writer/director/producer Noah Baumbach set out to create the universal divorce movie, and damn it all he seems to have done it.
Noah Bumbach’s Marriage Story follows the increasingly acrimonious divorce of Charlie and Nicole Barber (Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson). The pair were a star director/actress duo at Charlie’s New York City acting troupe, but Nicole has wanted for years to return home to Los Angeles, which she does as their divorce proceedings begin, taking their son Henry (Azhy Robertson) with her. The two have agreed to settle things between themselves and not get lawyers involved, but Nicole hires high-powered divorce lawyer Nora Fanshaw (Laura Dern) soon after she moves. The main narrative arc of the film is Charlie realizing he has to fight fire with fire here, first hiring laid-back retiree Bert Spitz (Alan Alda) and then his own high-octane divorce specialist in Jay Marotta (Ray Liotta) – “I needed my own asshole,” Charlie says.
Eyuuuckh. Images courtesy Netflix.
5/10 So, don’t tell anybody about this, but I think Martin Scorsese might be a little nervous about dying.
In I Heard You Paint Houses — marketing title The Irishman — an elderly Frank “The Irishman” Sheeran (Robert De Niro), nearly dead in his Philadelphia hospice, tells all about his years as a hitman for the Bufalino crime family. After coming home from World War II in 1945, Sheeran takes a job as a truck driver, doing crimes for extra money on the side. Boss Russell Bufalino (Joe Pesci) himself takes Sheeran under his wing, eventually introducing him to union head Jimmy Hoffa (Al Pacino). Sheeran becomes a mass murderer under Bufalino and as Hoffa’s bodyguard.
Man, I just love Adam Driver. He’s easily the best thing to come out of the Sequel Trilogy. Images courtesy Amazon Studios.
6/10 I wonder if this will finally get Ellen to dump George.
The Torture Report chronicles Daniel J. Jones’ (Adam Driver) investigation into the U.S.’ torture of enemy combatants after the Sept. 11 attacks. A congressional aid for California Senator Dianne Feinstein (Annette Bening), Jones is assigned in 2009 to go through the CIA’s full documentation of the “enhanced interrogation” program that was employed at Abu Ghraib prison and the Guantanamo Bay detention center. The film cuts between Jones’ seven-year investigation and fight to get it published and the architecture of the torture program he was investigating, pioneered by psychologists Bruce Jessen and James Elmer Mitchell (T. Ryder Smith and Douglas Hodge).
Fighting multiple political foes at different points, Jones eventually got a a 525-page summary of his 6,700-page report released. The report details a repulsive, woefully ineffective and pathologically stupid torture program. The film portrays interrogation techniques that are not only unproductive and morally wrong, but that replaced traditional interrogation methods that had been working just fine. U.S. operatives never gained a single piece of new, accurate information from the use of torture.
Jumanji: The Next Level remains fairly monochrome, but takes us out of the jungle and into the desert and then the mountains with a dark village in between. It’s usually all one color on the screen, but it’s not just green the whole time, which is a nice change. Images courtesy Sony Pictures Releasing.
7/10 There’s a great deal of potential in these new Jumanji films, but Jumanji: The Next Level doesn’t quite live up to it.
A year and change later, the four heroes of Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, who remained close friends, have gone their separate ways to college. Most are successful and happy, but Spencer Gilpin (Alex Wolff) is suffering at NYU. After inhabiting the body of Smolder Bravestone (Dwayne Johnson), and experiencing the confidence that came with it, his intelligence, technical skills and being an extremely handsome guy in his own right just don’t compare. Home for winter break, instead of reuniting with his comrades, Gilpin rebuilds the enchanted video game and enters Jumanji to experience that confidence again.
His worried teammates, Anthony “Fridge” Johnson (Ser’Darius Blain), Bethany Walker (Madison Iseman) and girlfriend Martha Kaply (Morgan Turner) discover what Gilpin’s done and go after him, but inadvertently suck in his grandfather Eddie (Danny DeVito) and Eddie’s old business partner Milo Walker (Danny Glover). The character selection is wonky, which becomes a huge problem when Eddie Gilpin, who has no idea where he is or what’s going on, is assigned the vital Bravestone character.
Reel Entropy 