Thursday, June 6, 2019

Crisp Criticism - "Godzilla: King of the Monsters", "Rocketman", "Ma", "Booksmart", "The Sun is Also a Star", "Deadwood: The Movie"

by
Julien Faddoul





Godzilla: King of the Monsters


A cryptozoological agency faces off against a battery of god-sized monsters, including Godzilla, who collides with Mothra, Rodan and Ghidorah.
Utterly inept, with no sense of stakes, character motivation or forward momentum. Just a tiresome blur of colour and noise.


d – Michael Dougherty
w – Max Borenstein, Michael Dougherty, Zach Shields
ph – Lawrence Sher
pd – Scott Chambliss
m – Bear McCreary
ed – Roger Barton, Bob Ducsay, Richard Pearson
cos – Louise Mingenbach


p – Alex Garcia, Jon Jashni, Mary Parent, Brian Rogers, Thomas Tull


Cast:  Kyle Chandler, Vera Farmiga, Millie Bobby Brown, Ken Watanabe, Sally Hawkins, Bradley Whitford, Charles Dance, Zhang Ziyi, O'Shea Jackson Jr, Thomas Middleditch, Aisha Hinds, David Strathairn, Anthony Ramos, Randy Havens, Jonathan Howard, Elizabeth Ludlow, Van Marten, Lexi Rabe, TJ Storm, Jason Liles, Richard Dorton, Alan Maxson, Joe Morton, CCH Pounder





Rocketman **



The story of Elton John’s life, from his years as a prodigy at the Royal Academy of Music through his influential musical partnership with Bernie Taupin.
Slick biopic of one of the greatest musical artists that (almost) avoids the didactic traps inherent with the genre by presenting the works as full-blown musical numbers, with a theatrical sense of time and place. Less imprecision with details would have been welcome.


d – Dexter Fletcher
w – Lee Hall
ph – George Richmond
pd – Marcus Rowland
m – Matthew Margeson
ed – Chris Dickens
cos – Julian Day


p – David Furnish, Matthew Vaughn, David Reid, Adam Bohling


Cast: Taron Egerton, Jamie Bell, Richard Madden, Bryce Dallas Howard, Gemma Jones, Steven Mackintosh, Tom Bennett, Matthew Illesley, Kit Connor, Charlie Rowe, Stephen Graham, Tate Donovan, Harriet Walter, Jason Pennycooke, Ophelia Lovibond, Jimmy Vee





Ma


A lonely woman befriends a group of teenagers and decides to let them party at her house, and things start happening that make the kids question the intention of their host.
Pretty stupid scarer that thinks it’s something more; of no discernible interest.


d – Tate Taylor
w – Scotty Landes
ph – Christina Voros
pd – Marc Fisichella
m – Gregory Tripi
ed – Lucy Donaldson, Jin Lee
cos – Megan Coates


p – Tate Taylor, Jason Blum, John Norris


Cast: Octavia Spencer, Diana Silvers, Juliette Lewis, McKaley Miller, Allison Janney, Corey Fogelmanis, Tanyell Waivers, Heather Marie Pate, Gianni Paolo, Dante Brown, Dominic Burgess, Luke Evans, Victor Turpin, Kyanna Simone Simpson, Missi Pyle, Skyler Joy, Andrew Matthew Welch





Booksmart *



Two academic teenage superstars realize, on the eve of their high school graduation, that they should have worked less and played more.
Well-intentioned by both its cast and first-time director, but frustratingly unfocused: it’s highly dubious that the kind of high school depicted here – in which almost all its participants are accepted into Ivy League colleges and those who haven’t were instead hired by Google straight out-of-the-box or whatever – would ever actually exist. Yet the film, in both tone and content, consistently argues against any sort of outlandishness, particularly in its depiction of sexual democracy and bourgeoisie detachment. Also, much of the comedy regrettably falls flat.


d – Olivia Wilde
w – Susanna Fogel, Emily Halpern, Sarah Haskins, Katie Silberman
ph – Jason McCormick
pd – Katie Byron
m – Dan the Automator
ed – Jamie Gross
cos – April Napier


p – Chelsea Barnard, David Distenfeld, Megan Ellison, Jessica Elbaum, Katie Silberman


Cast: Kaitlyn Dever, Beanie Feldstein, Jessica Williams, Jason Sudeikis, Diana Silvers, Skyler Gisondo, Billie Lourd, Molly Gordon, Mason Gooding, Eduardo Franco, Lisa Kudrow, Will Forte, Victoria Ruesga, Noah Galvin, Austin Crute, Michael Patrick O'Brien






The Sun is Also a Star *


Two young New Yorkers enjoy a romance over a single day before her family is deported to Jamaica.
Predictably empty-headed adaptation of a teen romance novel that nevertheless doesn’t offend or agitate nearly as much as others of its ilk. A kind of schmaltzy Before Sunrise (1995).


d – Ry Russo-Young
w – Nancy Oliver   (Based on the Novel by Nicola Yoon)
ph – Autumn Durald
pd – Wynn Thomas
m – Herdís Stefánsdóttir
ed – Joe Landauer
cos – Deirdra Elizabeth Govan


p – Elysa Koplovitz Dutton, Leslie Morgenstein


Cast: Yara Shahidi, Charles Melton, Gbenga Akinnagbe, Miriam A. Hyman, Jake Choi, Cathy Shim, Keong Sim, Jordan Williams, Camrus Johnson, John Leguizamo





Deadwood: The Movie ****



South Dakota 1889. The Deadwood camp celebrates statehood. Former rivalries are reignited. Alliances are tested. Old wounds are reopened. Americans at large, by and by, are left to navigate the inevitable changes that modernity and time have wrought.
O Mary don’t you weep, don't mourn. A bouquet. An appraisal. A partner in crime. Those who have been waiting 13 years for Milch’s prematurely cancelled masterwork on the symbolic establishing of American civilization from human chaos, to finally be encapsulated and adjourned, will be confronted with the realization that, at age 74, not only does he meet the mastery of said work, but he eclipses it. Regardless of whether one is familiar with the series, this is an indispensable piece of cinema: Milch’s grace and elegance is buoyed by superlative staging, incomparable period detail and one of the most staggering ensembles ever assembled. An overwhelming experience, yes it is. The sad paradox is that while the telvisionization of modern Hollywood cinema has, for the most part, rendered thematic potency imperceptible, it requires a cinematic denouement of an actual TV Drama to deliver the artful wisdom of the basic human blessings and flaws (fear, romance, vengeance, guardianship etc.) that can publicly befall the consciousness of the man and the woman; the lord and the lady; the prick and the whore; the murderer and the motherfucker. And whether or not there even is One who art in heaven, civil mortals have indubitably earned the right to stand on their own two feet, beholden to no human cocksucker.


d – Daniel Minahan
w – David Milch   (Based on the TV Series Created by David Milch)
ph – David Klein
pd – Maria Caso
m – Reinhold Heil, Johnny Klimek
ed – Erick Fefferman, Martin Nicholson
cos – Janie Bryant


p – David Milch, Daniel Minahan, Gregg Fienberg, Ian McShane, Timothy Olyphant, Scott Stephens, Carolyn Strauss, Mark Tobey


Cast: Timothy Olyphant, Ian McShane, Molly Parker, Paula Malcomson, Gerald McRaney, Anna Gunn, Kim Dickens, Robin Weigert, John Hawkes, Brad Dourif, Sean Bridgers, Jeffrey Jones, W. Earl Brown, William Sanderson, Dayton Callie, Tony Curran, Keone Young, Geri Jewell, Jade Pettyjohn, Lily Keene, Franklyn Ajaye

No comments:

Post a Comment