Green Book

Any reputable list of 2018 Oscar Best Picture front runners will contain these titles: A Star Is Born, The Favourite, Roma and Green Book. Green Book recently won the audience award at the Toronto International Film Festival. Is it one of the top four films of the year?

Green Book, named for a 1960's guide used by black motorists to help navigate road travel and lodging, works as both a crowd pleasing dramedy and as an odd couple road film, but not much more. 

The chemistry and dialogue between bouncer and driver Tony Lip (Viggo Mortensen) and musician and employer Don Shirley (Mahershala Ali) is spot on. The film, written and directed by Peter Farrelly (Dumb and Dumber, Something About Mary), is witty and gorgeous to look at. It winningly invites the audience to follow the two (real life) characters driving their way through north and southeast America in 1962.
  
This film has heart and it tugs at yours as Hollywood does best. Unfortunately, a sentimental, feel good story set so squarely in the racial politics of the 1960's was inappropriate enough to keep me from fully enjoying this well crafted film. A difficult call, but I can't recommend this one.

In a nutshell: It's an enjoyable road film with two compelling actors and many feel good movie moments. However, it's difficult to not see this as the white savior, feel-good movie of award season.

Award potential: Expect nominations anyway for Best Film, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Original Score and a host of other slots including a Best Costume nomination for designer Betsy Heimann.  

Ten Buck Review: Not worth ten bucks.

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald

You'll find none of the magic of the Harry Potter stories. Nor will you find a story.

Wizard Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmanye) returns with his magical suitcase and a mixed bag of storytelling in this new installment in the J.K. Rowling universe.

You’ll also meet Grindelwald (Johnny Depp),Albus (Jude Law), Leta (Zoe Kravitz), Theseus, Tina, Torquil, Arnold, Credence, Nagini, Queeni, Abernathy, Seraphina, Pottermore, Nifflers, Pickett, Titus, Finn, Poppy, Marlow and dozens of other characters and creatures stuffed into this movie that threads together too many characters and thoughts without a true draw for the casual film watcher.

I’m sure Potterfiles will enjoy the flashbacks, flash forwards, franchise fluff and surprise revelations, but there’s nothing here for other moviegoers. There are some surprises at the end that don’t really complete your film watching experience, they just set up the next installment.

It doesn’t help that this movie starts and ends with literal and figurative darkness. Even Depp’s role takes a grimmer turn as a flour-dusted, Trumpian leader who shows his 1920’s devoted followers (and the audience) how the inferior race of humans, er, muggles, will soon bring earth the Holocaust and atomic bombs. Oh what fun for the holidays!

Like too many movies of this decade, Fantastic Beasts aspires to be a popular franchise and marketable universe, never a full film. I prefer my serials on TV.

In a nutshell: Bloodless, but too bleak for kids. Adults will only enjoy this rambling film if they are Rowling fanatics.

Award potential: It’s a mess, but visually a stunning one. Potential nominations for Best Visual FX, Costume, Hair and Makeup and Production Design.

The Ten Buck Review: Not worth ten bucks.

Bohemian Rhapsody

Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?

Like the band Queen, Bohemian Rhapsody is for the fans. Unlike the band, the film is quite conventional. That lack of edge is somewhat disappointing (I wonder what a deeper or more inventive film could have been) and somewhat liberating (it’s a lot of fun on a weekend to see the band’s story play out in such a lighthearted way). 

Freddie (Rami Malek from Mr. Robot) and the band members were cast as crowd-pleasing lookalikes, and they lip-synched the songs to Queen recordings. These choices, and a brisk screenplay that covers Freddie’s full life, take the film to a paint-by-the-numbers format that delivers more like a TV movie than the recent A Star Is Born experience.

That is, until the bravura closing Live Aid sequence, which makes this film worth ten bucks after all. The ending has a kind of magic that forgives all the flaws before. You'll leave the theater with a strut in your step.

In a nutshell: BoRhap has all the problems of a too-brisk, overly sanitized biopic and you'll see all of the rock biopic cliches play out, but by the end it will, it will, rock you.

Award potential: Malik, an inch shorter than Mercury, captures much of his larger than life persona, especially in the music numbers. He’s a front-runner for a Best Actor (Music/Comedy) Golden Globe win and should be in the running for a Oscar Best Actor nomination. The film could score nods for Best Costume and Best Makeup and Hair as well.

The Ten Buck Review: Eventually, it's worth ten bucks.

Collette

"Women with knives. How Greek."

Director Wash Westmoreland's (Still Alice) Colette presents Englishwoman Keira Knightley as Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette, a French country girl whose literary gifts impressed all of 19th Century Paris.

Of course, 19th Century Parisians think her "Claudine" novels are written by Henry Gauthier-Villars (Englishman Dominic West), known in the literary community as "Willy," and presented onscreen with an insufferable series of scenes that each remind you what a bad man he is.
It's unfortunate that this film was released after The Wife, one of the year's best films with the same story — too.

Colette was a pioneer in women’s rights, an author who shocked readers with her Claudine novels, penned the popular Gigi and was nominated for the Nobel prize in literature in 1954. This flawed film, considerably enhanced by 2018 hindsight, should have done more justice to her. It should have been every bit as good as The Wife.

In a nutshell: Keira Knightly's radiant personality portrays Collette's sparkling intellect onscreen and she's delightful to watch. However, the full film experience pales to The Wife, released a month prior.
 
Award potential: Never count out Keira, but this might be the year to overlook her and this film as Best Picture. British opera composer Thomas Adès' score and Andrea Fleshch's costumes should find their way to Oscar nominations. Giles Nuttgens' gorgeous cinematography is a possible nomination, but I'd call it a long shot.

The ten buck review: Not worth ten bucks.

Ben Is Back

Ben is Back brings Julia Roberts back to quality film conversation at precisely the same time Homecoming, her Amazon Prime series, brings her to TV. Everything in that sentence is good stuff; so is her performance here.

Peter Hedges (Manchester By The Sea) is also on double duty this season as Robert’s son Ben in this film, and son to Nicole Kidman’s character in Boy Erased. His performance is equally noteworthy.
  It’s a good thing these two dynamos were cast because nothing else in this theatric, play-on-film matters except them; it’s a clear character drama focused on Ben’s relationships with family, hometown and drugs. 

Roberts plays her role with a mix of emotions that only a few actresses can pull off. I expect her Oscar clip will be one from an early scene where her character abruptly shifts from unconditional loving mom to a spine-shivvering rule giver. She's amazing.

Robert’s character is (ugh) named Holly and the film is set in the days before Christmas, but please look elsewhere for a holiday film at Christmastime. This is a family drama with very little seasonal delight to unwrap. 

The back third of the film stirs up more road adventure than realistic for Robert’s character, but forgive that for the chance to see Roberts light up the screen playing a mother with undying love.

In a nutshell: A heartbreaker not a heartwarmer 

Award potential: Two unforgettable performances should be rewarded, but don’t expect the movie to make the cut.
 
Between this and Boy Erased, Hedges is up against himself this season so it will be interesting to see what categories he’s positioned for. He's a contender. 

Courtney B. Vance is solid as the tough love stepfather, but this is a two-person film. 

The Ten Buck Review: Worth ten bucks. 

Ben is Back opens December 7, 2018.

First Man

First man? Man, oh man. I've been out of this world excited about the next Damien Chazelle (Whiplash, La La Land) film, whatever it would be, since 2016. And when I heard that he was taking on the Neil Armstrong story, on the eve of the 50th anniversary year of the moon landing no less, my ticket was sold.
 
With First Man, director Chazelle has created a film that immerses viewers in the personal space of Armstrong to give some sense of what those early, historical flights must have been like. Wow. The opening scene inside a violently shaking X-15 space capsule, littered with dials from the 1960's and the haunting sound of a container being pushed to its limits, is unlike anything I've ever seen in a space film before. That experience happens at least two more times and should have the sound effect awards locked up.  

Those scenes are amazing accomplishments in a film that somehow left me underwhelmed.  

At fault is most likely Chazelle's focus on Armstrong's down-to-earth life. Ryan Gosling (Drive) plays the reclusive, unemotional Armstrong, and Claire Foy (The Crown), plays his wife who seeks a more normal life for her family. Two reserved actors portraying unemotional figures does not make for a riveting two hours and twenty-one minutes. Unless it's Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson, of course.

As for the pivotal moment, Chazelle plays it neutral, skipping all the iconic scenes such as the flag mounting that ended the Russia-USA space race, and focuses on what Armstrong might be thinking about at this historical moment. For a gen-X guy like me that has witnessed that sequence set to the guitar-laced MTV theme song a few hundred times, it is a jolt to imagine the haunting quietness of that zen moment. It's also quite a bland let-down to the rocket fire energy of everything that got us to that moment.I want to respect the restraint it took to focus on this man's thoughts, but I couldn't feel much staring into a space helmet, and we are all just guessing anyway.

Then, Chazelle goes wheels off and adds to the story. He adds a climactic moment that's as likely to have happened as an old lady named Rose tossing a necklace off the Titanic. I rolled my eyes where I should have wept.

Restrained. Neutral. Thoughtful. Somewhat cold. It's an expertly crafted film that let me down as a movie goer.
 
In a nutshell: You'll feel like you experienced some of what those early flights were like, but that's all you'll feel. 

Award potential: There will be nominations in all sound categories. Best picture, director and actor are likely and likely vulnerable for a underwhelming October film. A Best Supporting Actress nomination for Claire Foy seems unlikely given the restrictions of her 1960's astronaut wife role.
 
Ten buck review. Worth ten bucks. See it in a theater and see it in IMAX. There will be no point to watching this on TV.

A Star Is Born (2018)

Born this way.

I've seen many films at my local, midtown theater and never knew that room could sound so good. Starting with the electrifying opening scene of A Star Is Born, which transports you in a cinematic sweep to the Stagecoach festival stage, you realize you're watching a film that aspires to be a big deal. It is. Turns out, Bradley cooper can direct — and sing.

We know his co-star, Lady Gaga, can sing. Her first song is an a cappella Somewhere Over The Rainbow, that plays as the film title graces the screen. It's an obvious nod to Judy Garland, who starred in the first remake of this film in 1954. Soon after that scene, we realize that Lady Gaga can act too. I loved her stripped-down performance as Ally, a superstar on the rise.

Cooper and Gaga not only provide musical authenticity to their characters, but they have solid chemistry in a film that is part tender love story and part every-rock star-movie-ever. Yeh, we've all seen part of this story before, but I crazy heart loved it anyway.

No surprise it all feels familiar. A Star Is Born has been created for four generations of movie lovers. This treatment follows the 1937 original, the 1954 Judy Garland musical, and the Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson version in 1976.

Despite the film legacy, Cooper's version is thankfully free of irony. The rise to fame is chill-inducing, the romance is authentic and tender and the fall from grace is well, heartbreaking. It's one of 2018's must-see films.
 
In a nutshell: Cooper and Gaga make beautiful music together, until they don't of course.

Award potential: Like the musical Chicago (2002), Star will likely be nominated across the board in acting, musical and technical categories. Likely twelve or thirteen nominations, including the big five.

This stellar version will be the most honored version, which is no small feat. Fredric March and Janet Gaynor earned Best Actor/Actress nominations in 1937 and James Mason and Judy Garland also received those nominations for their remake. No pressure, Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga. A win at the Oscars will prove difficult, but both should prepare their Golden Globe speeches now. 

Multiple songs may get nominated for Oscars' Best Original Song, but Shallow will be a front runner until we see what Mary Poppins Returns has in its bag. Judy Garland's song, The Man That Got Away, lost to Frank Sinatra's Three Coins in the Fountain. Streisand's Evergreen won at the 1977 Oscars, somehow knocking out nominee Gonna Fly Now from Rocky.
 
The ten buck review: Worth ten bucks.