Long Shot (2019)

I'm embarrassed to say that I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. I thought it was really funny. It only brushes the surface of its political ambitions but it's just enough to be interesting. Seth Rogen's Fred has principles. Yes, who would've thought that Seth Rogen would be the moral compass? Charlize Theron is oddly good at this wacky comedy. She should be given more comedic roles. And the very best part of the movie is O'Shea Jackson Jr, who makes a great comedic sidekick.

Steve Jobs (2015)

This biopic is excellent, thanks to an incredible vision by Danny Boyle, a great script by Aaron Sorkin, and some phenomenal acting from Kate Winslet, as well as Michael Fassbender and Seth Rogen.  This movie shines where the other Jobs biopic from a couple years ago failed.  Danny Boyle made a movie that is the Apple of biopics--it is sleek and gorgeous.

The structure of the film is brilliant.  The biopic is not over ambitious, it does not seek to cover an entire life.  Rather it focuses on just three major product launches in 1984 (Macintosh), 1988 (NeXT) and 1998 (iMac), the ones that Steve Jobs was so famous for.  But what is so brilliant is the pacing of the movie.  It is not about the launch itself, but actually the half hour before each launch when Jobs was preparing for his presentations.  Anticipation and excitement builds until the point we've all been waiting for as if we were at these product launches, and then Danny Boyle skips the presentation itself. This allows for a huge release, letting the audience take a deep breath to prepare for two more product launches.

Each product launch is split into four parts.  At each launch, Jobs has encounters with his daughter Lisa, co-founder Steve Wozniak, CEO of Apple John Sculley and Andy Hertzfeld from the original Mac team.  Lisa gives us a window into Jobs's personal life outside of work at three points in his life.  And the film actually ends with Lisa, humanizing Steve Jobs as a person with a family, not just the visionary businessman.  Jobs's confrontations with Wozniak highlight the interesting dynamics of one of the most important partnerships of the twentieth century.  Through Jobs's conversations with Sculley, we learn about Jobs's background as an adopted child and Jobs at Apple.  The film opens with Hertzfeld being berated by Jobs in an excellent scene dictated by an exhilarating rhythmic beat moving in the background.  And throughout the film, Kate Winslet's Joanna Hoffman is always there at his side with a leading-amount of screen time and she is phenomenal. 

Boyle does not shy away from painting a portrait of a controversial albeit legendary figure, who was allegedly very difficult to work with.  Boyle mentions (with some snark) all of the criticisms of Apple computers as Jobs's doing.  While it was clear that Jobs did not have the spirit of an engineer, he was a businessman and an artist.  Perhaps the most direct criticism came from Wozniak who says "What do you do?"  Wozniak was the tech genius but Jobs had the vision, he was the "conductor."

I got to see an advanced screening of this movie at the AMC Lincoln Square!

The Interview (2014)

I readily admit that I probably would not have seen this movie had it not been for all the controversy brought by the cyber-terrorist attack.  It is important that the right to free speech be preserved and protected and that no one, let alone cyber-terrorists, be allowed to decide what may be said.  Political satire has been consistently protected by the Constitution--it is the Constitution not terrorism that dictates law in America.  

The movie just as much a satire on the North Korean regime as it is on the American media.  It presents an interesting idea about politics.  How does a regime fall?  The initial plan is to kill the Supreme Leader, hoping that a better leader will usurp power.  But of course there is a Plan B.  Plan B shows the full potential of the media in its power to affect change and to make the public aware of what has been kept secret.

That being said, it is not a great movie.  It has its funny moments, mostly in the beginning of the film (I appreciate a good Hobbit reference).  As the movie progresses, the jokes get old.  We don't know too much about Kim Jong Un, so Randall Park runs with his portrayal, playing a shy, not-very-charismatic leader.  His depiction of the Supreme Leader is almost as funny as Margaret Cho's portrayal of the late Kim Jong Il in 30 Rock.  I've come to rather like Seth Rogen who is quite likable, but James Franco just comes off as annoying.