Crisp Criticism - "The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)", "Happy Death Day", "Geostorm", "Suburbicon"

by

Julien Faddoul

The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) **

An estranged family gathers together in New York for an event celebrating the artistic work of their father.

An exercise in oscillating inconsequential tenderness with enmity. Some of Baumbach’s interludes are delicious in their depiction of the protracted bitterness often found in scholarly families, others are tired examples of similar or congruent themes. Regardless, the cast is consistently fantastic.

wd – Noah Baumbach

ph – Robbie Ryan

pd – Gerald Sullivan

m – Randy Newman

ed – Jennifer Lame

cos – Joseph G. Aulisi

p – Noah Baumbach, Scott Rudin, Lila Yacoub, Eli Bush

Cast: Ben Stiller, Adam Sandler, Elizabeth Marvel, Dustin Hoffman, Emma Thompson, Grace Van Patten, Judd Hirsch, Adam Driver, Rebecca Miller

Happy Death Day **

A college student must relive the day of her murder over and over again, in a loop that will end only when she discovers her killer's identity.

Essentially a movie about film editing, in which all other cinematic aspects – staging, performance, lighting, design etc. – pale in concordance. The Groundhog Day (1993)/Edge of Tomorrow (2014) premise (more so the latter) is cleverly appropriated to the sorority girl setting and the plot, while ludicrous, imparts just the right aggregate of red herrings for adequate stimulation. As gimmicky slasher films with only mild levels of horror go, this one’s remarkably fun.

d – Christopher Landon

w – Scott Lobdell

ph – Toby Oliver

pd – Cece Destefano

m – Bear McCreary

ed – Gregory Plotkin

cos – Meagan McLaughlin

p – Jason Blum

Cast: Jessica Rothe, Israel Broussard, Ruby Modine, Rachel Matthews, Charles Aitken, Rob Mello

Geostorm

When the network of satellites designed to control the global climate starts to attack Earth, it's a race against the clock to uncover the real threat before a worldwide Geostorm wipes out everything.

A disaster film with very few disasters on display, despite the plot’s reliance on their contingency to the point of fruitlessness. Instead, we are mostly saddled with actors shouting either cries for help or lame comedic insults.

d – Dean Devlin

w – Dean Devlin, Paul Guyot

ph – Roberto Schaefer

pd – Kirk M. Petruccelli

m – Lorne Balfe

ed – Chris Lebenzon, John Refoua, Ron Rosen

cos – Susan Matheson

p – David Ellison, Dana Goldberg, Dean Devlin

Cast: Gerard Butler, Jim Sturgess, Abbie Cornish, Alexandra Maria Lara, Daniel Wu, Eugenio Derbez, Amr Waked, Adepero Oduye, Andy García, Ed Harris

Suburbicon

A home invasion rattles a quiet family town in the 1950s.

Hysterical, cringe-inducing attempt by its director to emulate the mood and aesthetic of the Coen brothers, who wrote the original story. Everyone here tries (maybe too hard) at an objective that never becomes clear and the result regrettably falls flat with every beat.

d – George Clooney

w – Joel Coen, Ethan Coen, George Clooney, Grant Heslov

ph – Robert Elswit

pd – Jim Bissell

m – Alexandre Desplat

ed – Stephen Mirrione

cos – Jenny Eagan

p – George Clooney, Grant Heslov, Teddy Schwarzman

Cast: Matt Damon, Julianne Moore, Oscar Isaac, Glenn Fleshler, Megan Ferguson