Crisp Criticism - "Stronger", "Goodbye Christopher Robbin", "The Man Who Invented Christmas", "Daddy's Home 2"

by

Julien Faddoul

Stronger **

A victim of the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013 helps the police track down the killers while struggling to recover from PTSD.

Crisp, well-acted true story that focuses on the emotional trivialities of its central romance. It works best when dissecting the emptiness in hero worship and less so when striving for grandiose significance.

d – David Gordon Green

w – John Pollono   (Based on the Book by Jeff Bauman and Bret Witter)

ph – Sean Bobbitt

pd – Stephen H. Carter

m – Michael Brook

ed – Dylan Tichenor

cos – Leah Katznelson, Kim Wilcox

p – Jake Gyllenhaal, Michel Litvak, Scott Silver, Todd Lieberman, David Hoberman

Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Tatiana Maslany, Miranda Richardson, Clancy Brown, Frankie Shaw, Danny McCarthy, Carlos Sanz, Karen Scalia, Jimmy LeBlanc

Goodbye Christopher Robin

A.A. Milne and the creation of the Winnie the Pooh stories inspired by his son Christopher Robin.

Dull retelling of Milne’s inspirations without ever coming close to indicating to the wit that is readily found in his books.

d – Simon Curtis

w – Frank Cottrell Boyce, Simon Vaughan

ph – Ben Smithard

pd – David Roger

m – Carter Burwell

ed – Victoria Boydell

cos – Odile Dicks-Mireaux

p – Steve Christian, Damian Jones

Cast: Domhnall Gleeson, Margot Robbie, Kelly Macdonald, Will Tilston, Alex Lawther, Nico Mirallegro, Stephen Campbell Moore, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Geraldine Somerville, Richard McCabe

The Man Who Invented Christmas

After a series of books have been flopped, Charles Dickens decides to write and self-publish A Christmas Carol.

Garbage, dunderheaded nonsense with a clearly embarrassed cast. It is yet another film about writing that has no comprehension of the actual writing process, basically reducing the writer in question to a clerk, frantically copying down everything that happens around him as a source for his most famous lines.

d – Bharat Nalluri

w – Susan Coyne   (Based on the Book by Les Standiford)

ph – Ben Smithard

pd – Paki Smith

m – Mychael Danna

ed – Stephen O’Connell, Jamie Pearson

cos – Leonie Prendergast

p – Niv Fichman, Vadim Jean, Robert Mickelson, Susan Mullen, Ian Sharples

Cast: Dan Stevens, Christopher Plummer, Jonathan Pryce, Miriam Margolyes, Simon Callow, Morfydd Clark, Ian McNeice, Bill Paterson, Donald Sumpter

Daddy’s Home 2

Brad and Dusty must deal with their intrusive fathers during the holidays.

Heinous, unfunny sequel; strictly for those who enjoy basking in Gibson’s unassailable love for himself, which is a category that I, alas, don’t fall into.

d – Sean Anders

w – Sean Anders, John Morris

ph – Julio Macat

pd – Clayton Hartley

m – Michael Andrews

ed – Brad Wilhite

cos – Carol Ramsey

p – Will Ferrell, Chris Henchy, Adam McKay, Kevin J. Messick, John Morris

Cast: Will Ferrell, Mark Wahlberg, John Lithgow, Mel Gibson, Linda Cardellini, John Cena, Alessandra Ambrosio, Owen Vaccaro, Scarlett Estevez