Crisp Criticism - "Star Wars: The Last Jedi", "Wonder Wheel", "Just Getting Started"

by

Julien Faddoul

Star Wars: The Last Jedi **

The Resistance prepares to do battle with the First Order, while Rey develops her newly discovered abilities with the guidance of Luke Skywalker.

One of the most incontrovertible examples of the influence and necessity of a dynamic auteur: Johnson crystalizes all the adolescent mumbo jumbo of the Star Wars franchise, designed to coddle a malnourished movie-going public that is bred on nostalgia, into a rather gratifying piece of interplanetary theatrics. The religious mysticism is harmonized, the humour is acute and the battle sequences, both on the military and hand-to-hand scales, are expertly filmed. He also accomplishes the task of conveying a sense that momentous consequences are involved in the decisions taken. Surely the best Star Wars film since the original trilogy, the aesthetic is deeply rooted not only in those films, but in the Kurosawa masterpieces that inspired them. It’s too long, too sentimental and too preoccupied with setting up plotlines for future instalments, but this is probably about as personal as these films are going to get.

wd – Rian Johnson   (Based on the Characters Created by George Lucas)

ph – Steve Yedlin

pd – Rick Heinrichs

m – John Williams

ed – Bob Ducsay

cos – Michael Kaplan

p – Kathleen Kennedy, Ram Bergman

Cast: Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Benicio del Toro, Andy Serkis, Lupita Nyong'o, Domhnall Gleeson, Anthony Daniels, Gwendoline Christie, Kelly Marie Tran, Laura Dern, Justin Theroux

Wonder Wheel *

On Coney Island in the 1950s, a lifeguard tells the story of a middle-aged carousel operator and his beleaguered wife.

Another unremarkable Allen piece dripping in pseudo-literary patchworks, in this case any major artistic figure of the 1950’s, chiefly Tennessee Williams.

wd – Woody Allen

ph – Vittorio Storaro

pd – Santo Loquasto

ed – Alisa Lepselter

cos – Suzy Benzinger

p – Letty Aronson, Erika Aronson, Edward Walson

Cast: Kate Winslet, Juno Temple, Justin Timberlake, Jim Belushi, Max Casella, Geneva Carr, David Krumholtz, Tony Sirico, Steve Schirripa

Just Getting Started

A retired FBI agent and an ex-mob lawyer in the witness protection program having to put aside their petty rivalry on the golf course to fend off a mob hit.

So lazy it’s sedative. This kind of comedy is not only unfunny but out-of-date, even for senior citizens.

wd – Ron Shelton

ph – Barry Peterson

pd – Guy Barnes

m – Alex Wurman

ed – Paul Seydor

cos – Carol Oditz

p – Bill Gerber, Steve Richards

Cast: Morgan Freeman, Tommy Lee Jones, Glenne Headly, Rene Russo, Joe Pantoliano, Jane Seymour