August / September 2015

The Gift
Stars - Jason Bateman, Rebecca Hall, Joel Edgerton
Plot - An old high school acquaintance starts to creep out a young couple.
Thoughts - Written, directed, produced by and starring Joel Edgerton, The Gift was one of the best movies of the summer. Not only does it harken back to the great Hitchcockian thriller, but also it stays with you for days, weeks, months after you've seen it.
Grade - B+

Ricki and the Flash
Stars - Meryl  Streep, Kevin Kline, Mamie Gummer, Rick Springfield
Plot - A bar musician returns home to the family she abandoned after her daughter goes through a heartbreaking divorce.
Thoughts - This should have been the most fun movie of the year (Streep singing Lady Gaga, anyone?). And parts of it ARE fun, but it mostly feels awkward and it mostly falls flat, thanks to a lackluster script by Juno scribe Diablo Cody.
Grade - C+

The Gunman
Stars - Sean Penn, Javier Bardem
Plot/Thoughts - Sean Penn stars as Liam Neeson! No, honestly I don't even really remember because it was so bad and so long ago and so forgettable.
Grade - D

Child 44
Stars - Tom Hardy, Gary Oldman, Noomi Rapace
Plot - A Russian soldier investigates the murder of a young boy.
Thoughts - Somewhere in this mess, there might be a good movie. I mean, how really can you go wrong with Hardy and Oldman? But the truth is, this is a mess and just about unwatchable.
Grade - D+

Straight Outta Compton
Stars - O'Shea Jackson, Paul Giamatti
Plot - The trials and tribulations of NWA, the group that invented gangster rap.
Thoughts - Listen, there isn't much I love more than late 80s/early 90s hip hop, and this biopic does justice to a group of politically conscious "thugs" from Compton. The cast is mostly unknown, and they are uniformly great, especially Jackson, who plays his dad, Ice Cube. This is sort of a must see.
Grades - B+

Aloha
Stars - Bradley Cooper, Emma Stone, Rachel McAdams, Bill Murray
Plot - A former army guy returns to Hawaii for a ceremony and gets entangled with his former flame and a new lady.
Thoughts - When do I stop giving Cameron Crowe a pass? He wrote and directed my very favorite movie of all time (Almost Famous), but is that enough to keep letting him off the hook for making crappy movies. Because Aloha is so, so, so very crappy.
Grade - D-

Insurgent
Stars - Shailene Woodley, Theo James, Kate Winslet, Miles Teller
Plot - Tris and co. are on the run when the Erudite leaders realize her divergence might be the key to stopping war.
Thoughts - Ugh. I remember liking the book and liking Divergent, but this mostly seems like a bit of a mess. The fact is, these books/movies  to keep you wanting more the way The Hunger Games do, so I'm mostly kind of over Tris and her virtual reality nonsense.
Grade - C-

Black Mass
Stars - Johnny Depp, Joel Edgerton, Jesse Plemmons, etc.
Plot - The true story of Whitey Bulger, the Boston gangster who became an FBI informant so he could literally get away with murder.
Thoughts - I had a lot to say about this after I first watched it, but I forgot most of it which sort of sums up Black Mass, you know? The performances are across the board stellar, and I know everyone is talking about Johnny Depp's chilling performance, but he's mostly one note. The real star of the show is Joel Edgerton's FBI agent who is so complicated and layered, it's a pleasure to watch. Mostly though, you can skip this and just rewatch The Departed.
Grade - C+

Love & Mercy
Stars - Paul Dano, John Cusack, Elizabeth Banks, and Paul Giamatti playing his second sleazy music guy of the summer.
Plot - Intersecting stories follow Brian Wilson in the 60s (Dano) while he records Pet Sounds and starts to lose his shit and in the 80s (Cusack) when he is trying to get out from under his tyrannical doctor/manager.
Thoughts - This movie really nails what a tortured genius Brian Wilson is and mostly it's a really solid biopic. The 60s segment is much more engaging, either because Dano actually looks like Wilson (Cusack not so much), or because Dano gives one of the best performances we are likely to see this year.
Grade - B