Movie Review – The Old Man & the Gun

Director: David Lowery

Starring: Robert Redford, Sissy Spacek, Casey Affleck

Year: 2018

David Lowery loves working with Casey Affleck (Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, A Ghost Story), and that’s fine with me; I think he’s one of the best actors working, outpacing his more-famous brother by miles (Manchester by the Sea).  Casey is an incredible dramatic actor, he’s a natural emotive force, and while he doesn’t sit well with all audiences, due to the intensity of his methods, I’ve always appreciated that he gives his entire soul to his performances, holding nothing back from those who are willing to receive the brunt of the impact.  But The Old Man & the Gun isn’t about Affleck, who has a smaller part but still works wonders, and should always be appreciated wherever he chooses to pop up.  No, this film is about Robert Redford, who is saying goodbye to his fans with one more ride down a familiar road, and all we can do is say thank you.

This is the true story of Forrest Tucker, a life-long criminal who we can’t help but root for.  In prison off and on since he was a teen, Forrest has never been able to conform to the rules or take his punishment laying down, he’s always needed to live on his own terms, even if that means a lifetime of running.  In his older days, he’s taken to robbing banks wearing a hat and fake mustache, politely telling the managers and tellers that they are being robbed, before walking out of the room with a smile of his face.  His latest exploits have captured the attention of the nation, as he moves from town to town taking what he wants, and making friends along the way.  But crime is crime, and officer John Hunt is determined to stop Tucker, even if he is an old man at the end of his days, a washed up crook who just can’t seem to stop stealing time before the clock runs out.

The Old Man & the Gun was meant as Robert Redford’s swan song, and even if he’s walked back the idea of retirement since the movie was released, it sure feels like the end of an era and a good time to say goodbye.  After all, the man is 82, a legend, has done all he can do, and can’t have too much time left, so we might as well pay respects before he’s gone; it’s a little silly to do it after.  And Redford does the situation justice with a classic role that’s right out of his canon, with a character that is mostly himself and the rest wonderful nostalgia.  The film is nice, it’s an easy watch, you root for the “bad guy”, and you have a good time; I expected and wanted nothing more.  Redford is great, Spacek fills a role pleasantly, Affleck is as strong as always, and I liked the sidekick duo of Danny Glover & Tom Waits, that worked really well.  A period piece, a cool adventure, a chance for a few last laughs; we tip our hats to a cinematic hero.

My rating: ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Movie Review – The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

Director: The Coen Bros.

Starring: Tim Blake Nelson, James Franco, Liam Neeson

Tom Waits, Zoe Kazan, Bill Heck, Tyne Daly, Brendan Gleeson

Year: 2018

The Coen Brothers aren’t afraid to try new things, and apparently that includes a six-part movie straight to Netflix about cowboys and the ways they die.  Sounds simple, but you know you’re getting something a little more complicated from these two men, and from the cast they employ to weave their tale.  Or their ballad, as it were, since the film starts musically and focuses on the title character, although the rest is something far different from what we prepare ourselves for from the beginning.  Perhaps that’s the true lesson within Buster Scruggs; to expect the unexpected, because the stories told here don’t go the way you might expect, which, at times, makes them all the more enjoyable.

Six segments abut each other over a just-over two-hour span, leaving viewers with a taste of Western life and a fear of their own inevitable deaths.  The Ballad of Buster Scruggs introduces us to the fastest son of a gun with a gun, the singing cowboy named Buster who is as quick with a trigger as he is with a tune.  Near Algodones takes us along on a bank robbery, albeit one that doesn’t go as planned and takes its bandit on a bumpy ride.  Meal Ticket shows us the darker side of show business, how the throat you cut to get ahead might be the one you’re supposed to be feeding.  All Gold Canyon presents us with a near-perfect valley, where treasure lies buried and beauty lies all around, but where violence follows close behind.  The Gal Who Got Rattled takes us on the Oregon Trail, a journey fraught with peril and with potential.  And lastly, The Mortal Remains, when a simple setting isn’t what it looks like.

I’m torn between enjoying one of my favorite directing teams and thinking their product was a little too weird.  It starts strangely, gets much better, but never quite overcomes its own oddities to become as good as it could potential have been.  I strongly disliked three stories, I really appreciated three others, so I land somewhere in the middle and can’t wholeheartedly recommend you run to your basement to turn on Netflix and watch this.  It might have worked better as an anthology series, something you could watch a la carte, like Black Mirror, which isn’t always amazing, but has enough moments to make it great.  Buster Scruggs simply isn’t a movie, never feels like a movie, and so suffers since it calls itself one.  Tom Waits is terrific (see him in The Old Man and the Gun as well), Zoe Kazan’s tale I loved, but I can’t think of anyone else who stood out, and at a little over 2 hours, the pacing was a bit tedious at times instead of constantly remaining engaging.  If they really wanted to be experimental, The Co Bros. should have made Buster Scruggs a show, not a film; I really think it would have worked better.

My rating: ☆ ☆ ☆

Movie Review – Outlaw King

Director: David Mackenzie

Starring: Chris Pine, Florence Pugh, Billy Howle

Year: 2018

With a spectacular followup to Hell or High Water and an incredible tribute to Braveheart, Mackenzie and Pine team up once more to make Outlaw King one of the best films of the year, completely separate from its status as a Netflix original movie and completely shocking to those who did not see this war epic coming.  Hell or High Water was one of my favorite films from 2016 and Braveheart is one of my favorite movies of all time, so I was fairly prepared for a stellar achievement, but even I wasn’t ready for the power of Outlaw King, or the originality of its delivery.  Think the Scottish dramas you’ve seen before combined with the brutality of a slaughterhouse and you’ll have some idea what you’re in store for, and if that sounds like something you can appreciate/stomach, wow are you in for a treat.

As William Wallace’s rebellion fails and the legendary hero goes into hiding, Robert Bruce makes peace with the English in order to save what’s left of Scotland.  He and his nobles swear fealty, bend down, but haven’t forgotten, they’re only making the best decision they can with the threat of total annihilation hanging over their heads.  Robert will soon be King if he keeps his nose clean, but the death of Wallace sends a shock wave through the countryside, and the Scots are ready to fight again, though they remain exhausted from years of war.  So Bruce rallies his troops for another open rebellion, but without Wallace the Highlanders don’t come running down from the hills, and a quick death seems Robert’s fated end.  Only fast thinking and sheer, God-granted luck will keep him alive to see his nation free, though many a gruesome battle stands between the dream of independence and its fulfillment.

Mackenzie can direct anything, apparently, from a Neo-Western morality piece to a historic drama that we all thought we’d seen before.  Guess what; we hadn’t, Outlaw King tells another story, and although you’ll recollect some Braveheart if you’re a fan, this is the continuation of that tale, not a recycling.  Chris Pine takes a slightly different approach as well, playing his character with less accent and more introspection, allowing us to feel Bruce and his pain from start to finish.  But, as much as I loved Pine in this role, there are two men who have him outmatched here, and I am still shocked to be saying that.  Billy Howle (On Chesil Beach) as Prince Edward was something special, but Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Godzilla) as Black Douglas was something else entirely, a once-in-a-lifetime performance that should define his career.  So, Pine hasn’t been better since Z for Zachariah, Pugh continues past Lady Macbeth with another strong showing, and the film presents some amazing, dark cinematography to enjoy if what you want with your bleak picture is more bleakness.  More brutal than you were prepared for, more accurate than its predecessors, more moving than I expected; Outlaw King is one of the best 2018 has to offer.

My rating: ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Movie Review – Early Man

Director: Nick Park

Starring: Eddie Redmayne, Timothy Spall, Tom Hiddleston

Year: 2018

From the father of Wallace & Gromit comes Early Man, a claymation creation that continues the style but doesn’t live up to the nostalgia.  Nick Park is a legend for his work in this unique medium (or, at least, a medium that’s unique to still work in), and it’s nice to have another film to add to his list.  Various Wallace & Gromit tales, Chicken Run, The Curse of the Were-Rabbit; Park takes his time, gets every detail in order, and then presents us with a movie to add to his canon.  But that doesn’t mean that the resulting cinema will be spectacular, and his voice is definitely a very acquired, very British taste.  Early Man was nice but not necessary, and I’m not sure it was worth the time and effort it took to make.

In the period of the dinosaurs and the great upheaval that followed the massive comet strike, early men retreated to the valleys to live out the Stone Age in relative peace.  Their favorite pastime was football, a game given them by the cosmos itself, a simple competition that provided endless entertainment.  Fast forward a few epochs and Stone Age man is making way for Bronze Age man, but football still remains a pastime for the masses.  Clinging to the old ways, Dug and his tribe must fight for their little valley, which has been claimed by evil Lord Nooth, who wants it for its bronze mines.  They will face each other in a match on the pitch to decide their fates, playing their ancestors’ game as new eras emerge.

I think you’d have to have been raised on Wallace & Gromit to really dig into Early Man and enjoy it the way it was meant to be enjoyed.  It’s very British, very silly, kind of dry, not very complicated, and relies heavily on the impression the animation makes, much more so than the impact of the story.  The characters are dull, not super well-done (with the exception of Tom Hiddleston and Rob Brydon), and the story is oddly obsessed with football in a way that those who call it soccer will never understand.  Still, watching it with my kids, I enjoyed its simplicity of content and complication of physical work; the hours they put into making these little clay figures, weaving in CGI for a bit of help, making it all come together over many years and with the help of many people.  It’s impressive and mostly fun, but nothing great, and not really important enough to warrant the build-up.

My rating: ☆ ☆ ☆

Movie Review – Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

Director: Morgan Neville

Starring: Fred Rogers

Year: 2018

Mr. Rogers was a part of the childhood of so many, and none of us will ever forget the impact he had on our lives.  He’s as important as Sesame Street, as legendary as Santa Claus, and as historic as television itself.  For countless kids, he was television, he was the reason you watched, and he was a trusted voice when not every sound in your world made sense.  I remember watching his show with joy; the puppets, the trolley, the cardigans, the shoes, the traffic light, the fish, the small adventures around town.  It was like having a wonderful relative that cared about you and wanted to show you the best that life had to offer, and yet this man had the capacity to wear that role for millions, which only shows the depth of his compassion and his determination.  The ability to love and to show love is the most important quality we can possess, and Mr. Rogers taught many of us where that quality could be found, because he wasn’t afraid to show it within himself.

Fred Rogers was set to be a minister when he first encountered the radical new invention called television, and it changed his life forever.  He understood that television was a way to get a message across that had never been and would never be rivaled.  He could spread his version of God’s love through a new technology, and that version was based on caring for others above all else.  He wanted to show the world that kindness could make a difference, that friendship could be forever, that a neighborhood can be made up of whoever is willing to lend a helping hand to another, that love really is all we need.  From meager beginnings to superstardom, Mr. Rodgers would become a television persona that mirrored the man, lending credibility to a message of peace and understanding that wasn’t exactly in holding with any religion or belief, but was somehow independently and marvelously magical.

I watched my fair share of Mr. Rodgers when I was younger, and I always loved the ease with which you could turn it on.  There weren’t action scenes, you didn’t need to follow every episode, nothing spectacular was going to pop out of the screen, you could just simply watch and enjoy, as this wonderful man showed you around his neighborhood and around your own imagination.  But he broached serious topics too, and Fred Rogers wasn’t afraid to take chances or push the envelope; quite the rebel for a buttoned-down minister in the 60s and 70s.  This documentary takes us along for the ride with Fred and his family, as he attempts to remake TV in his image, not conforming but forming, giving kids something they had always secretly wanted.  His message was simple; you’re welcome here, you’re loved the way you are here, you’re worth something here, and no one is excluded.  Pretty simple and very brilliant, and he created a show based on this concept, which seems idealistic, but somehow worked.  This film captures that spirit marvelously, and is worth your emotional investment.

My rating: ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆