Crisp Criticism - "Fifty Shades Freed", "Lady Bird", "Last Flag Flying", "Roman J. Israel, Esq.", "Faces Places"

by

Julien Faddoul

Fifty Shades Freed

Anastasia and Christian get married and then stuff happens, I guess.

Lifeless, psychologically absurd, ineptly plotted ruin of a movie that possesses no justification to be of interest to any thinking human in an age when internet porn is so easily accessible. Johnson seems so ready to wash her hands of her own participation at this point, while Dornan’s performance is so stiff and awkward it’s as if his only piece of direction was “Now remember, stick is lodged in rectum.”

d – James Foley

w – Niall Leonard   (Based on the Novel by E.L. James)

ph – John Schwartzman

pd – Nelson Coates

m – Danny Elfman

ed – Richard Francis-Bruce

cos – Shay Cunliffe

p – Dana Brunetti, Michael De Luca, E.L. James, Marcus Viscidi

Cast: Dakota Johnson, Jamie Dornan, Eric Johnson, Arielle Kebbel, Brant Daugherty, Fay Masterson, Max Martini, Eloise Mumford, Luke Grimes, Rita Ora, Marcia Gay Harden, Andrew Airlie, Dylan Neal, Gary Hudson, Tyler Hoechlin

Lady Bird ***

A Sacramento, CA high school student plans to escape from her family and small town by going to college in New York.

Smart, witty, beautifully assembled episodes within the final school year of a frustrated teenager in the early 00s. It plays like a conciliation of youthful flightiness and the journey to understanding the problems of others (especially one’s parents). The cast is superb.

wd – Greta Gerwig

ph – Sam Levy

pd – Chris Jones

m – Jon Brion

ed – Nick Houy

cos – April Napier

p – Eli Bush, Evelyn O'Neill, Scott Rudin

Cast: Saoirse Ronan, Laurie Metcalf, Tracy Letts, Lucas Hedges, Timothée Chalamet, Beanie Feldstein, Lois Smith, Stephen Henderson, Odeya Rush, Jordan Rodrigues

Last Flag Flying **

Thirty years after serving together in Vietnam, a former Navy Corpsman and two former Marines reunite to bury one of their sons, a young Marine killed in the Iraq War.

Based on a novel that, in that form anyway, was a sequel to The Last Detail (1973), which doesn’t seem to interest its director very much, who strips away as much as he can. All the typical Linklater quotidian elements are here: long takes of characters hanging out, past resentments resurfacing themselves and forceful (if juvenile) concentrated conversations on existentialism. There are poignant moments but the whole is far too inconsequential to have any sort of enduring impact.

d – Richard Linklater

w – Richard Linklater, Darryl Ponicsan   (Based on the Novel by Darryl Ponicsan)

ph – Shane F. Kelly

pd – Bruce Curtis

m – Graham Reynolds

ed – Sandra Adair

cos – Kari Perkins

p – Richard Linklater, Ginger Sledge, John Sloss

Cast: Bryan Cranston, Laurence Fishburne, J. Quinton Johnson, Richard Robichaux, Lee Harrington, Cicely Tyson, Kate Easton, Deanna Reed-Foster, Yul Vazquez, Graham Wolfe

Roman J. Israel, Esq. **

A driven and brilliant but awkward defense attorney, who has devoted his life to his ideals, finds himself in a tumultuous series of events that lead to a crisis.

Essentially a glorified TV movie that would buckle hard under that unflattering auspice had any other actor been cast in the title role. The result – both the film and the performance – consistently fascinate with silly moments adjoined to compelling ones.

wd – Dan Gilroy

ph – Robert Elswit

pd – Kevin Kavanaugh

m – James Newton Howard

ed – John Gilroy

cos – Francine Jamison-Tanchuck

p – Todd Black, Jennifer Fox, Denzel Washington

Cast: Denzel Washington, Colin Farrell, Carmen Ejogo, Amanda Warren, Tony Plana, Shelley Hennig

Faces Places **

Director Agnès Varda and photographer/muralist JR journey through rural France and form an unlikely friendship.

Warm but not particularly astounding introspective docudrama, probably because the affection and/or idealism of Varda herself is never challenged. In fact, the film’s constant fortification of her becomes tiresome rather quickly. It plays best as a depiction of the benevolent friendship that two artists of totally different generations can have with one another.

wd – JR, Agnes Varda

ph – Roberto De Angelis, Claire Duguet, Julia Fabry, Nicolas Guicheteau, Romain Le Bonniec, Raphaël Minnesota, Valentin Vignet

m – Matthieu Chedid

ed – Maxime Pozzi-Garcia, Agnes Varda

p – Rosalie Varda

Cast: JR, Agnes Varda