End of Year MOVIE JOURNAL

[Chris Knipp]

QUEEN & SLIM (Melina MMatsoukos 2019). In this intermittently exciting actioner with political overtones, a black man and woman in Cleveland on an unpromising Tinder date go on the run after killing a white cop who belligerently pulls them over for a minor violation, the sort of thing that more often ends with the black driver's death. As they head south with the aim of escaping to Cuba, a dashboard video from the police car goes viral. Thus they become accidental celebrity outlaws especially admired by some elements of the Black Lives Matter movement. The Bonnie and Clyde, Thelma and Louise genre acquires a whole new angle. The most entertaining interlude comes when the pair visit the woman's colorful uncle, a pimp with Iraq war PTSD living in a polyamorous relationship with two sex workers. Matsouikos is a maker of music videos so there is a lot of swirling, explanatory music, and not such good momentum or plotting. It goes on too long. Two English actors, Daniel Kaluuya (Oscar-nominated for Get Out) and Jodie Turner-Smith play the couple. Bokeem Woodbine is amusing as Uncle Earle. Chloe Sevigny and Flea appear briefly as a couple providing a momentary hideaway. Watched at Hilltop Dec. 13, 2019. Metascore 75%.

[Chris Knipp]

RICHARD JEWELL (Clint Eastwood 2019). About the shlubby security guard at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics who calls attention to a terrorist bomb and becomes a hero, then is terrorized by the press and FBI when he's made a prime suspect for the crime. May distort various facts, but all the actors shine, particularly Paul Walter Hauser as Jewell. Kathy Bates is touching as his mom with whom he lives. Jon Hamm is sexily menacing as the local FBI boss leading the futile investigation. Sam Rockwell is particularly sympathetic as the angry lawyer who defends Jewell against the media and gov't onslaughts. Olivia Wilde doesn't come out too well as the overzealous Atlanta Constitution reporter who exposes Jewell to menacing media scrutiny after sleeping with Hamm to get the info, a detail strongly challenged by the paper about the late reporter. Guess Clint doesn't care for the gov't or the press much. Some see this as a pro-Trump message. If it was that simple it wouldn't be worth watching or worthy of Clint. Watched at Hilltop Dec. 14, 2019. Metascore 69%.

[Chris Knipp]

THE TWO POPES ( Fernando Meirelles 2019). This is billed as entertainment but a lot of it seems like punishment, especially the heavy-handed flashbacks to the dubious past of Cardinal Bergoglio, future Pope Francis (Jonathan Pryce), not to mention all the laborious Vatican rituals and buddy gestures. And hey, Prtyce ain't Argentinian, nor is Anthony Hopkins, who plays the then-current Pope Benedict XVI (former Joseph Ratzinger), a German - and this secret meeting never happened. I guess it's meant to be a smoothing over of the presumed blots on the otherwise admirable (to liberals) Pope Francis's past by the Brazilian Meirelles, also a looking over of the two popes' contrasting styles and politics. I'm one who liked the 2002 City of God, which Meirelles co-directed; no special fan of anything he's done since. Of course this is an acting fest, anyway, and it shows the 81-year-old Hopkins still has skills. Logical physical casting: both actors look a lot like the guys they're playing. Maybe most valuable for Argentinians, or papists. Like Little Women, The Irishman, and Marriage Story, a Netflix film, this one the most okay to watch on your small screen. Did not admire the editing or the camerawork. Limited release Nov. 27, wide, Dec. 20. Watched at Landmark Shattuck Cinemas Dec. 15, 2019. Metascore 75%.

[Chris Knipp]

JOJO RABBIT (Taika Waititi 2019). A surprising comedy, in English, about the last days of Hitler in Germany from the POV of a 9-year-old boy who's an ardent Nazi, which doesn't work out very well for him. The director, Taika Waikiti, aka Taika Cohen, a New Zealander who's half Maori and half Jewish, plays a goofy fantasy--friend Hitler imagined by the protagonist, played by an appealing Roman Griffin Davis. Scarlett Johansson plays his single mother, Sam Rockwell a failure of a German officer who's friendly to the boy. The boy is a softie. His inability to kill a rabbit during a Hitler Youth camp exercise gets him the titular nickname, and also explains why (also because he's lonely and she's cute), when he discovers a Jewish girl hiding in the house (Thomasin McKenzie), he befriends and protects her. The designers of sets and costumes went to town. For a modest production this looks distinctive and great, and it was largely from that point of view that I admired it. A chastening dark realism creeps in more toward the end, but there's not a huge amount of emotional resonance, considering. Watched at Shattuck Cinemas Dec. 15, 2019. Metascore 58%.

[Chris Knipp]

BOMBSHELL (Jay Roach 2019). This movie about a key #MeToo event, the takedown for sexual harassment of Fox News impresario Roger Ailes (and anchorman Bill O'Reilly), despite real footage of then candidate Donald Trump, is hasty-seeming and doesn't pack quite the punch such a hot topic deserves. Numerous shapely ladies shashay round the Fox studios with pancake makeup and bleach-blond hair, including Charlize Theron as Megyn Kelly and Nicole Kidman as Gretchen Carlson, leading Fox News personalities, and Margot Robbie as new staffer and new object for predator Ailes Kayla Pospisil. These good looking actresses are doing the right thing in depicting something so much a key issue today, but a better film would have earned them more credit. Also involved in good works are Allison Janney as senior staffer Susan Estrich, John Lithgow (fresh from playing Winston Churchill in "The Queen")" heavily inflated via prosthetic makeup, as Roger Ailes. Malcolm McDowell enters late in the action as Fox owner Rupert Murdoch, who takes the reins. I would have had more scenes where Ailes shows his foul behavior toward women. Ultimately the screenplay by The Big Short coauthor Charles Randolph doesn't go quite deep enough. US release Dec. 20. Watched at Hilltop. Metascore 64%.

[Chris Knipp]

STAR WARS: EPISODE IX: THE RISE OF STARWALKER (J.J. Abrams 2019). The surviving Resistance faces the First Order once more in the final chapter of the Skywalker saga - so at least this is meant to be the last Star Wars episode. Duty might have led me to see it anyway - though I've missed a majority of other ones - but I was curious to see Adam Driver, who I've become a fan of for his work over the last decade in "Girls" and with Baumbach, Jarmusch, Scorsese, and a lot of good directors, as Kylo Ren. The production mars his rough beauty by smoothing out its roughness with makeup and hair styling, but a lot of the time he's in a mask anyway. It was nice to see Richard E. Grant, who I'll always think of as Withnail (and so many disreputable cousins), picking up a nice fat paycheck as General Pryde. This episode has s very low critical rating, but some say those can go up substantially later. Only for fans though. There are some strikingly beautiful landscapes, with more use than usual of big objects in the foreground, possibly because they're so effective in 3D. i will now do my duty and watch Driver star in the earnest and significant The Report, out Nov. 15, but who saw it? Watched at Hilltop Dec. 21, 2019. Metascore 54%.

[Chris Knipp]

THE AERONAUTS (Tom Harper 2019). Loosely based on the life of a British weather scientist and his exploits in 1862, this brings back together Felicity Jones and Eddie Redmayne for the first time since The Theory of Everything. It's about a struggle to survive in a gas balloon with pilot Amelia Wren (Jones) and meteorologist James Glaisher (Redmayne), who barely survive, and almost kiss. The movie is about a great exploit, accomplished by a much older, less dapper man than Eddie, but it's all as light as air, and rather forgettable, because it's so conventional. An entertaining piece of period fluff. Actually seen a week or two back, but I forgot to make a note of it. At Albany Twin, Berkeley. Metascore: 60.


SEE WHAT I MEAN ABOUT DAPPER? HARPER, JONES, & REDMAYNE