Marriage Story

Do I think there's another story to tell about the end of wedded bliss beyond Kramer vs. Kramer on film and Company on Broadway?

Based on Marriage Story, I do.

The film opens on the marriage of stage director Charlie (Adam Driver) and actor Nicole (Scarlett Johansson) before revealing the very conscious uncoupling that follows.

They share an 8-year-old son, Henry (Azhy Robertson) so it’s clear early on that it’s not going to be easy to watch, despite the occasional laughs and real-life screwball moments. The screening I attended passed out promotional tissues before the film.

Writer and director by Noah Baumbach (Frances Ha, The Squid and the Whale) gives the film’s setting a clever supporting role. It’s not just a battle of the sexes; it’s a battle of east and west coasts. Johansson’s character and son leave Brooklyn for Los Angeles where “you can’t beat the space,” and the film is told through both environments.

The real reason this film plays so well, other than the impressive leads, is the fairness the script gives to all characters. Everyone’s view is correct, based on their situation. You have sympathy for everyone. You place blame on everyone.

Well, sympathy for everyone except the lawyers of course. Laura Dern plays Nora, Nicole’s tough attorney who faces Alan Alda, one of Charlie’s attorneys. Ray Liotta plays the other one, Charlie’s “jerk of his own.”

This film has a limited theatrical release before going to Netflix. If you miss Adam Driver's “being alive” scene on the big screen — that’s on you. This is one of the best films of 2019.

In a nutshell: An expertly crafted family drama with some big movie moments, coming to a TV near you soon.

Award potential: Expect nominations for Best Picture, Director, Screenplay, Actor (Driver), Actress(Johanson), and Supporting Actress (Dern). The actors have never been better, but the real fight is going against the stars of Judy and Joker.

The Ten Buck Review: Worth ten bucks.

Marriage Story

Do I think there's another story to tell about the end of wedded bliss beyond Kramer vs. Kramer on film and Company on Broadway?

Based on Marriage Story, I do.

The film opens on the marriage of stage director Charlie (Adam Driver) and actor Nicole (Scarlett Johansson) before revealing the very conscious uncoupling that follows.

They share an 8-year-old son, Henry (Azhy Robertson) so it’s clear early on that it’s not going to be easy to watch, despite the occasional laughs and real-life screwball moments. The screening I attended passed out promotional tissues before the film.

Writer and director by Noah Baumbach (Frances Ha, The Squid and the Whale) gives the film’s setting a clever supporting role. It’s not just a battle of the sexes; it’s a battle of east and west coasts. Johansson’s character and son leave Brooklyn for Los Angeles where “you can’t beat the space,” and the film is told through both environments.

The real reason this film plays so well, other than the impressive leads, is the fairness the script gives to all characters. Everyone’s view is correct, based on their situation. You have sympathy for everyone. You place blame on everyone.

Well, sympathy for everyone except the lawyers of course. Laura Dern plays Nora, Nicole’s tough attorney who faces Alan Alda, one of Charlie’s attorneys. Ray Liotta plays the other one, Charlie’s “jerk of his own.”

This film has a limited theatrical release before going to Netflix. If you miss Adam Driver's “being alive” scene on the big screen — that’s on you. This is one of the best films of 2019.

In a nutshell: An expertly crafted family drama with some big movie moments, coming to a TV near you soon.

Award potential: Expect nominations for Best Picture, Director, Screenplay, Actor (Driver), Actress(Johanson), and Supporting Actress (Dern). The actors have never been better, but the real fight is going against the stars of Judy and Joker.

The Ten Buck Review: Worth ten bucks.

Why three of 2019's Best Picture nominees will be on Netflix, not theater screens

This month, Netflix is releasing three films in theaters followed with a streaming release only days, not months, later. Here’s the real headline — all three are front runners for the Best Picture Oscar. And yes, you’ll be able to watch all three at home before Christmas week.

It was just one year ago that Netflix caused an uproar with theater chains by releasing Roma for its service just days after a theater run. Most theater chains would not show it and stuck to the 72-90 day window before a movie they showed could be available to rent, buy or watch on a service.

And many watched to see whether Roma would gather Oscar nominations or get treated as television, more fitting of an Emmy prize. Well, the debate ended swiftly. It tied The Favourite for most nominations — a total of ten — including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Foreign Film.

I’ve seen Netflix's The Irishman and Marriage Story and each is rivaled only by Tarantino’s Once Upon A Time In Hollywood for the Best Picture honor. The third one, The Two Popes, just won the audience award at the Middleburg Film Festival in Washington D.C. Past winners of this award include recent Best Picture winners Spotlight and Green Book.

Here’s all you need to know about the three new, noteworthy Netflix films:

The Irishman

What: Martin Scorsese’s three+ hour, slow-paced film features a greatest hits of mafia actors, the Jimmy Hoffa story, and a heart-tugging final act. The chemistry between De Niro and Pacino is GOAT cinema.

When/Where: In theaters now including The Magnolia in Dallas. On Netflix November 27, 2019.

The Ten Buck Review: Worth ten bucks. See it in a theater.

Marriage Story

What: Stage director Charlie (Adam Driver) and actor Nicole (Scarlett Johansson) are at dramatic odds in a coast-to-coast divorce. The theater I saw it in passed out complimentary kleenex at the door, but there are a few laughs too.

When/Where: In theaters starting Friday, including The Magnolia in Dallas. On Netflix December 6, 2019.

The Ten Buck Review: Worth ten bucks. See it in a theater.

The Two Popes

What: Conservative Pope Benedict (Anthony Hopkins) and liberal future Pope Francis (Jonathan Pryce) look for common ground in a timely film for 2019.

When/Where: In theaters beginning November 27, 2019. On Netflix December 20, 2019.

The Ten Buck Review: Stay tuned.

The Report

All the Inconvenient Truths.

 

In the next four weeks, actor Adam Driver will be in three high-profile films portraying either an FBI investigator, a stage-director husband, or the head of an evil empire in a galaxy far, far away.

 

In The Report, Driver plays real-life Daniel J. Jones, who led a Senate investigation of the C.I.A.’s use of torture after 9/11. Jones worked under Senator Diane Feinstein (played here by an impressively understated Annette Benning.)

 

The Report is the directorial debut of Scott Z. Burns (screenwriter for The Bourne Ultimatum and producer of Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth). He takes a straightforward, conventional approach here, shooting most of the scenes in low-ceiling basements, garages and dark offices. The film has the vibe of those ‘70s political procedurals, and even All The Presidents Men. It’s a style that suits a film about truth-telling well.

 

Most of us will know how the story ends, but that doesn’t hinder the momentum of watching the hunt for the truth take place.

 

In a nutshell: A well-crafted, political thriller.

 

Award potential: It’s likely too traditional to gather Academy Award attention. Expect Driver to be nominated for Wedding Story instead.

 

The Ten Buck Review: Worth ten bucks.

The Irishman

The chemistry between De Niro and Pacino together is GOAT cinema.

Director and producer Martin Scorsese has been bashing superhero films lately, but he’s ironically assembled the Avengers of mob films for his latest outing. De Niro. Pacino. Pesci, and a greatest hits cast of supporting mobsters fill this Mount Rushmore of mobsters film that includes Bobby Cannavale, Harvey Keitel, Ray Romano, Jesse Plemons, Sebastian Maniscalco, and even Steven Van Zandt.

Little surprise, this the ninth feature film collaboration between De Niro and Scorsese. Big surprise, this is the first time Pacino has been directed by Scorsese. And what a role — Jimmy Hoffa.

Pesci reportedly had to be asked fifty times to come out of unofficial retirement for this film and to play a mob member again, but it was worth it. Scorsese tried to persuade him The Irishman would be "different.”

It is.

The Irishman is based on the book I Heard You Paint Houses, by Steven Azillian, and that's the actual title that displays on the film. Scorsese takes his time telling this story — with a runtime one minute shy of three and a half hours — which allows him to become a different director as well as milk great performances out of his actors. I could watch one scene of De Niro and Pesci breaking bread, sipping vino and talking in Italian again and again. And the chemistry between De Niro and Pacino together is GOAT cinema.

De Niro and most cast members appear as young as twentysomething and as old as 80 in this film with the help of Industrial Light and Magic. If you stare at it, you’ll see the imperfections (mostly in Pacino), but it’s surprisingly not distracting.

The Irishman is one of the best films of the year. I expect most end-of-year lists will have this and Tarantino’s Once Upon A Time in Hollywood in their top two. They share more than just a legendary director; both films are three-hour-plus retro fantasies that take their time to tell a story that pays off with a surprising third act. With both films, I was worried they wouldn’t pay off and deserve their long run time, but the finale moves in, affects you and you get what Scorsese was building to the whole time — masterfully.

The Irishman opens in select theaters (such as the Magnolia in Dallas) on November 15. It streams on Netflix on Thanksgiving Eve.

In a nutshell: An epic gangster film that can sit on the same shelf as Goodfellas.

Award potential: Front runner for Best Picture. Will have nominations in all categories. Scorsese for Best Director. De Niro, Pacino and Pesci will have acting nominations.

Add Best Cinematography, Screenplay, Film Editing, Score, Production Design, and likely frontrunner for Best Visual Effects and you have at least 11 nominations for Oscars. 

Time may push Tarantino's Hollywood film to a win in early February however, it's just too soon to tell. I'm betting there will be controversy over the liberties taken with the controversial book material and screenplay (more on this one than Hollywood), and the Netflix airing will limit the theater experience I saw and cheapen the film somewhat. 

It should clean up in the SAG Best Ensemble category, the SAG equivalent to Best Picture.

The Ten Buck Review: Worth ten bucks. Go see this on the big screen or I’ll have to break your leg.

Parasite

You may have read that filmmaker Martin Scorsese has recently referred to serial Marvel movies as “not cinema” and encouraged theaters and theatergoers to embrace “cinema of human beings trying to convey emotional, psychological experiences to another human being.” Quite a mouthful. Perhaps a simpler approach would have been to just tell everyone to go see Parasite.

Visionary director Bong Joon-ho (Snowpiercer) has created a social commentary, black-comedy thriller, in subtitles, about a family in modern-day Korea — and it is wholly entertaining. Almost every element in that previous sentence is the opposite of a modern crowd-pleaser, but this is the 2019 film that is most likely to have audiences as nervous and engaged as they were watching Avengers Endgame.

In Parasite, Ki-woo (Woo-sik Choi) is referred by a friend to tutor the daughter of a wealthy family. He is the son in a family of four that needs the income. To tell you more would be a disservice. However, I will tell you that it explores themes of class and humanity, and I’ll share that every brilliant shot of this film matters to theme and story.

Unlike most thrillers that descend as the plot unfolds, Parasite works from start to finish. Once the story “crosses the line” and the intensity boils, the characters stay true to their role and the realism stays steady.

In a nutshell: A masterfully executed thriller and social commentary.

Award potential: As the winner of this year’s Palm d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival already, it has a chance at top nominations. Potential for Best Picture, Best Foreign Film, and Best Director. Kang-ho Song, who plays the father, is a wild card for Best Actor.

The Ten Buck Review: Worth ten bucks.

Midway

I used to say that there “are no bad WWII movies.” Of course, that was before Michael Bay (Armageddon, Transformers) dropped Pearl Harbor into theaters in 2001. Bay knows how to capture explosions, but still hasn’t learned to tell a compelling story.

So, when I heard that explosive-prone director Roland Emmerich (Independence Day, The Patriot, White House Down) was remaking Midway, I can’t say that I was optimistic. The original, 1976 film is a staple for WWII film-watching weekends. It features Henry Fonda, Charlton Heston, and most every working actor of its time.

The good news is the new film is less of a remake and more of a retelling. 

The original film focused on fictional characters; there are no fictional characters (or love stories) in this new, straightforward film. While the new film begins with Pearl Harbor, both films cover the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo, the Battle of The Coral Sea and the Battle of Midway. 

If you’re looking for an answer to why we need a new film, the answer hit me as soon as I saw the meticulous visual effects and the modern technology added to the aviation scenes. The dive bomber scenes produce more rush of adrenaline than any recent Star Wars film has.

If you want to take a youngster to an engaging history lesson, this rated PG film will do the trick — and the impressive screen spectacles will keep them interested. Or, if you’re looking for a film to play on Memorial Day weekend, the straightforward, Hemmingway-esque approach is captivating. But if you’re looking for me to fully recommend this soulless, two hour and 18-minute film during the best film season of the year, I just can’t do that.

In a nutshell: Dynamic effects put you in the seat for a visual retelling of those famous battles.

Award potential: There is a case to be made for Best VFX, but I expect other films will take those noms.

The Ten Buck Review: Not bad, but not tenbuckworthy either.