Eye in the Sky (2015)

This is a sleek modern intense war thriller. War has changed in the modern era. There is arguably no war in the film. But there is military activity. Our soldiers may not be on the ground, but there is a profound presence around the world with the new usage of drones. The technology is incredible clear and precise. And this film is thought provoking. It does its best to be unbiased, presenting and defending vigorously each side of the argument, exploring multiple issues regarding drones. War thrillers are always in the moment, and that is how they build intensity. But this movie is intense because it actually drags out the drama. We are forced to constantly wait and delay because that is how war is now. There are legal issues, political issues and a whole chain of command that must be consulted--and we see it all. 

Finding Dory (2016)

This is Pixar's long promised sequel to the classic Finding Nemo. The film is actually very similar to its predecessor; similar but not a copy like the new Star Wars. This movie makes much more use of flashbacks. This is partially due to the nature of Dory's short term memory loss, but it also capitalizes on cute baby Dory whose eyes make up more than half of the entire fish. The story is familiar but very well executed by once again moving from the open ocean to the an aquatic environment in a human context. Ellen is fantastic as a forgetful fish. But Ed O'Neill steals the show, essentially playing his usual curmudgeon character as an octopus. And there's a great cameo by Sigourney Weaver's voice.

What is so incredible about this movie is the advances in animation made over at Pixar. The octopus is such an intricate character to animate. Movement and camouflage involve several moving tentacles and a body that moves like nothing else does. Further, the under water scenes better reflect the lighting of the ocean. The sea floor is dark and scary and murky and the effect that you would normally get with a camera comes through in the animation.

As with all Pixar movies, it preys on emotion. There is always that moment about three-fourths in to the movie that is supposed to make you cry. But I felt like that moment, in comparison to other Pixar movies, is a little too predictable and a bit too cutesy to be as powerful. It relies on you feeling bad for baby Dory, rather than stemming from pure emotion.

The short film preceding Finding Dory was Piper. The animation is incredible, it looks absolutely real. The birds and the sand and the beach and the water are so lifelike. The story is simple and sweet. It makes you smile. And what more can you ask for from a short film than to evoke genuine emotion.

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay--Part 2 (2015)

This is a much darker film than other blockbuster series. And that tone matches the the book but I didn't really like the last book. The Hunger Games series was great because of the hunger games. But the last two films don't feature a hunger games. They focus instead on rebellion, which is complicated, cynical and messy. Much of this final movie is spent filming propaganda. And there is no glamour in propaganda. There is no glamour in war. It makes you long for the extravagance of the earlier films. Jennifer Lawrence can do no wrong-- she'll forever be known as The Girl on Fire. The novelty has kind of worn off now that dystopian teen fiction is everywhere, only exacerbated by splitting the final book (arguably the worst one) into two films.

Confirmation (2016)

HBO continues to make dramas of our recent political history, following Recount and Game Change. As always, HBO attracts an all-star ensemble cast that is given plenty of room to shine. Kerry Washington brilliantly plays Anita Hill. She is smart and calm in the face of unimaginable adversity. This is accentuated by juxtaposing her with Jennifer Hudson's more fiery Angela Wright. Wendell Pierce from Treme is angry and defensive as Clarence Thomas.

The film makes a lot of use of actual news footage. It gives the film more authenticity. It gives the viewer insight into what people were thinking at the time, while also portraying a perspective in the film with hindsight. The film takes a pretty negative stance on the Senate Judiciary Committee and the hearings. Particularly, Senator Biden comes off rather weak. But ultimately the film is about Anita Hill. It is about female empowerment. It is about confronting sexual harassment. And it does all these things quite well.

Midnight Special (2016)

This movie has a Steven Spielberg feel to it. It is his brand of science fiction. It is a little bit Close Encounters and a little bit Super 8--all very prominently feature the night. It is about a young boy with mysterious powers who needs to get to the right place at the right time for something. It is all shrouded in mystery. There are three parties who have competing stakes. One party is the FBI, joined by Adam Driver from the NSA. Adam Driver is a little subdued, he kind of under acts. It is the same bland delivery of lines as in Paterson and Star Wars. Sure, I guess it fits the role but it's always the same with him. Another party is a religious cult that reads prophecies from the boy's powers. And the third party is made up of Michael Shannon, Kirsten Dunst, and Joel Edgerton. All three of them are excellent. I particularly liked Shannon's intense performance as a concerned father. The movie is engaging and mysterious, not to mention visually striking. 

The Puppetmaster (1993)

The Puppetmaster is a gorgeous epic tale. It is an extraordinary tale, that is unbelievably autobiographical. Li Tian-lu, master puppeteer, narrates his own life story as an artist living under the Japanese occupation of Taiwan. Periodically, we cut to talking head interviews with the aging Li that give his story an air of authenticity like a documentary. The scenes typically start in the moment and we watch history unfold. Meanwhile, a narrator tells the audience what is occurring (it is difficult to tell who is speaking, whether it is someone inside the frame, someone outside the frame, or more often the narrator) while we see a slight variation on screen. The movie provokes questions about history versus memory.

The cinematography is absolutely gorgeous. Interior doors and walls create a framing device within the frame of the camera such that we only see a fraction of the action. The characters move in and out of the frame as if life exceeds the boundaries of the film, and we are just observing it. We are reminded of this in the mesmerizing puppet scenes, in which the focus is not simply what we see on stage but also the characters acting and viewing the show. When we do see people on screen, they are always occupied with something, as if they were standing on stage exposed to the audience doing choreography. The movie is characterized by long master takes (vignettes) beginning with a fade-in and ending with a fade-out filmed by a single still camera. When the camera does move in rare circumstances, it is striking.The wide shots of the Taiwanese countryside are beautiful with small silhouettes of working people accentuating the scenery.

The music is also notable, including both traditional Chinese instruments and western style epic soundtracks. And Li has a sense of humor that is actually quite funny though sometimes the movie is a little slow. It is a heartwarming story about an artist who mastered his craft told in a greater historical context. 

Ant-Man (2015)

Paul Rudd stars in this Marvel flick, which was actually quite funny. It is more traditional humor, unlike the riskier Deadpool. Quite frankly, I think Ant-Man works better. Michael Pena is hilarious as Rudd's sidekick. And Paul Rudd, as a comedian, is naturally funny and charming whereas sometimes you feel like Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool tries too hard. What is really great about this movie is that Ant-Man is human. He is not "super" like some other Marvel heroes. And as a human, he has human problems, family problems, mundane problems. This human element grounds the film in reality. The powers come from science, which though it is unrealistic, is hypothetically believable. It does not take itself too seriously, while not being a total joke like Deadpool. 

Zootopia (2016)

On the surface, it is an animated buddy cop comedy (helmed by a strong, dominant female lead), but there is so much more to it. Zootopia is a brilliant allegory that is funny, relevant, and witty. Predators and prey live together in harmony, or so they believe. But stereotyping and discrimination run abound. It is not a perfect analogy to the real world. Nor can it be expected to capture all of the complexities and intricacies of our society. But Disney creates its own world with its own imperfections, a utopia that cannot reach the high bar it sets for itself. It is very thoughtful and thought provoking. It preaches a message of tolerance that falls upon American ears that need to hear it. But the message is never too blatant--it is balanced well with genuinely funny jokes (including references to The Godfather and Breaking Bad) and modern animation. 

The Tonys 2016

Every once in a while, a cultural phenomenon takes Broadway by storm. Hamilton follows in the footsteps of The Book of Mormon and The Producers and Rent, though I'm not sure if those are even proper comparisons for the groundbreaking musical. Already with a Pulitzer, the hip hop history play is the hottest ticket in town. Just how many awards will it win? The record of 12 was set by the Producers. Out of 16 nominations, Hamilton is up for 13 unique awards, all of the awards for which it was eligible. Many are predicting that Hamilton is a lock in 7 categories. Personally, I think Hamilton will tie the record, losing just the Lead Actress in a Musical Tony. James Corden, a Tony winner himself for One Man, Two Guvnors, is hosting. He did a Carpool Karaoke segment with Lin Manuel Miranda, Audra MacDonald, Jane Krakowski and Jesse Tyler Ferguson already for his own show. I think he will do a Crosswalk the Musical segment for the Tonys (I'm hoping for In the Heights on an actual street in Washington Heights). Full disclosure, the only eligible show I have seen is On Your Feet, which is up for 1 Tony for choreography.

Best Play
Will win: The Humans
Watch out for: Eclipsed

Best Musical
Will win: Hamilton

Best Book of a Musical
Will win: Lin Manuel Miranda (Hamilton)

Best Musical Score
Will win: Lin Manuel Miranda (Hamilton)

Best Revival of a Play
Will win: A View From the Bridge
Watch out for: Long Day's Journey into Night

Best Revival of a Musical
Will win: She Loves Me
Watch out for: The Color Purple

Best Actor in a Play
Will win: Frank Langella (The Father)
Watch out for: Mark Strong (A View from the Bridge)

Best Actress in a Play
Will win: Jessica Lange (Long Day's Journey into Night)
Watch out for: Michelle Williams (Blackbird)

Best Actor in a Musical
Will win: Leslie Odom Jr (Hamilton)
Watch out for: Lin Manuel Miranda (Hamilton)
Unless they split: Danny Burstein (Fiddler on the Roof)

Best Actress in a Musical-- Hamilton's Loss
Will win: Cynthia Erivo (The Color Purple)
Watch out for: Phillipa Soo (Hamilton)

Best Featured Actor in a Play
Will win: Michael Shannon (Long Day's Journey into Night)
Watch out for: Reed Birney (The Humans)

Best Featured Actress in a Play
Will win: Jayne Houdyshell (The Humans)
Watch out for: Andrea Martin (Noises Off)

Best Featured Actor in a Musical
Will win: Daveed Diggs (Hamilton)
Watch out for: Jonathan Groff (Hamilton)

Best Featured Actress in a Musical
Will win: Renee Elise Goldsberry (Hamilton)
Watch out for: Jane Krakowski (She Loves Me)

Best Director of a Play
Will win: Ivo van Hove (A View from the Bridge)
Watch out for: Joe Mantello (The Humans)

Best Director of a Musical
Will win: Thomas Kail (Hamilton)

Best Choreography
Will win: Hamilton
Watch out for: Shuffle Along

Best Orchestrations
Will win: Alex Lacamoire (Hamilton)

Best Scenic Design of a Play
Will win: The Humans
Watch out for: Therese Raquin

Best Scenic Design of a Musical
Will win: Hamilton
Watch out for: She Loves Me

Best Costume Design of a Play
Will win: King Charles III
Watch out for: Eclipsed

Best Costume Design of a Musical
Will win: Hamilton
Watch out for: Shuffle Along

Best Lighting Design of a Play
Will win: The Humans
Watch out for: The Crucible

Best Lighting Design of a Musical
Will win: Hamilton
Watch out for: American Psycho

Update: 19/24 categories. Hamilton came away with eleven awards, falling just short of the record 12 set by the Producers. But to be fair, the Producers won a sound award that no longer exists. Hamilton lost just two races, one to The Color Purple and one to She Loves Me. 

Beyonce: The Formation World Tour (2016)

Beyonce is the undisputed Queen. She slays for two hours. Now 19 years into her career, she has climbed to the top of the industry and can do no wrong. She unapologetically ("I Ain't Sorry") embraces her femininity, her sexuality, and her blackness. Her unprecedented visual album Lemonade is visually striking and provokes questions about race, gender, marriage and strength in the face of infidelity. It is an admirable accomplishment, but I am not sure all of these complex ideas shine through in her concert. The movie was such a force that it is perhaps too much to ask for a concert to convey such deep messages. But this is not to detract from what Beyonce does well in concert.

What is abundantly clear is the power of womanhood. Beyonce leads her all-female backup dancers in a militant march. In solidarity, they support Beyonce in mesmerizing, overtly sexualized dance. They project the a silhouette of Beyonce's figure perched atop a chair against the audience. The dance style is characterized by sharp, bold movements and Beyonce's ferocity comes through most in the dance sequences. I would say she dances as much as she sings, especially in the first half while she has energy. Luckily, she is a good dancer. The lighting actually detracts from the dance, blinding the audience and obscuring the dance, which is the strongest aspect of the concert.

The main set piece is an enormous LED box that revolves and splits down the middle. Clips of Lemonade are shown on all four sides. They keep the audience engaged during Beyonce's many costume changes. The stage is otherwise empty. The band is nowhere to be seen, save for a drummer and a bassist. The backup singers are in the shadows. It's really not about the music--dance is the showcase.

The most stunning part of the show is the final set of songs. The thin, long runway that bridges the main stage to the smaller platform out in the audience is revealed to be a conveyor belt. And that smaller platform reveals a shallow pool of water in which they dance clad in white and raise hell. Wet and alive, Beyonce slays "Freedom" and Destiny's Child's "Survivor."

After her performance at the Superbowl earlier this year, SNL aired a skit in which white people discover (much to their surprise) that Beyonce is black. It's funny because there is some truth behind it. There were more white people in the audience than I was expecting. New York is perhaps not a good representation of white America, but I have a hard time believing that middle America would enjoy DJ Khaled's hour long opening featuring a slew of names I was only vaguely familiar with. Each of them only rapped part of one song (none of which I knew) on a very small section of stage. I didn't think I was that out of touch with hip hop, but I was wrong. Make no mistake--this concert experience isn't about what fans want or are familiar with. It is about embracing the black experience. Lemonade represents a thematic evolution in Beyonce's music that reflects both our time and her ability to do whatever she wants. She is the Queen and she doesn't need to worry about what anyone else thinks.

PS. I thought I was much more familiar with Beyonce's music than I actually am. I think I recognized less than 50% of the songs she performed, many of which were just partial songs. Nonetheless, Beyonce's performance at Citi Field was a religious experience. Did Jay Z cheat? Maybe, but at the end of the day it doesn't matter. What matters is this story gave Beyonce a vehicle to project her strength as a black woman.

The Long Night of Francisco Sanctis (La Larga Noche de Francisco Sanctis) (2016)

A Long Look at the Dirty War (For Those Familiar With It)

            Based on a novel of the same name by Humberto Constantini, The Long Night of Francisco Sanctis (La Larga Noche de Francisco Sanctis) runs just a brief seventy-eight minutes yet it feels much too long. It would have made an excellent short film, but it makes for a generally slow feature film.

            First-time directors Andrea Testa and Francisco Marquez drag out a single tension-filled day in the life of a middle-class worker living a quiet life in Buenos Aires. The opening scene expertly shows (and refrains from “telling” at any point in the film) the audience everything to know about the daily life of Francisco Sanctis, portrayed by Diego Velazquez. In a single take with a still camera, Sanctis and his wife hurry to prepare breakfast for their two children. The four of them barely fit in the cramped kitchen, let alone within the frame. Like a typical family, they are running late in their morning routine. The children complain like children do, and Sanctis talks about his anticipated upcoming promotion like a proud breadwinner does. It is evident that this average man lives a mundane life. The drama and impetus of the plot is whether Sanctis will break out of this banal lifestyle.

            He is soon given such an opportunity when an old acquaintance, Elena, phones him at work ostensibly to talk about a poem he wrote in college.  This phone call misled me, as I assumed this poem was about love and this call about an affair. The dialogue with his co-workers hint at an affair as well. After all, extramarital sex is seemingly the most common theme in the films screened at Cannes this year.  But this film was one of just a few I saw that contained no sex. Rather, this was a suspenseful encounter about politics, though the average American viewer would not have realized it. For this reason especially, this arthouse feature is not immediately accessible to a general audience below a certain age.

            The first thing you need to know is that the film takes place in 1977 under the rule of a brutal military junta, right in the midst of the Dirty War. The protagonist uses pay phones several times, but the viewer is never explicitly told what year the film takes place. Perhaps the old fashioned costumes and mustache might suggest that the film takes place in the 1970s, but it was very difficult to confirm my suspicions about the context of the plot otherwise. Testa and Marquez make a very bold assumption that the audience is familiar with the Dirty War. While that may be true of Argentinian audiences, and even Western audiences who lived through it, the typical young American viewer is not well versed in the Dirty War. I can say with certainty that the Dirty War is not included in the American high school history curriculum. Thousands of Argentinians who were thought to oppose the military dictatorship were disappeared, often never heard from again. They were thrown into prisons and flung into the ocean from helicopters left to drown. In this period of terror and uncertainty, everyone was scared and no one could be trusted for they could be spies of the government.

 The only reason I was familiar with it (and was able to form a hypothesis about the plot while watching it) was because I have seen The Official Story (La Historia Oficial), one of the first films released internationally about the Dirty War, in which it is revealed that children of the disappeared were given to families with close ties to the military for adoption. Without the necessary background knowledge, the viewer is left completely in the dark, figuratively and literally. And even with this knowledge, I could only make assumptions as the dialogue is necessarily cautious and consequently vague. This vagueness feeds suspenseful mystery. Viewers clamoring for explicit answers never get them as the mystery lingers past the end credits.

            There were a few specific words that tipped me off, but they could have easily been missed. The first was the name of the military branch that Elena’s husband works for, which sounded aerial in nature, implying death flights (vuelos de la muerte). The second was the use of the word “taken” though the more common term in the context of the Dirty War, “disappeared” (desaparecidos), is never used and the mysterious “they” is never specified. Lastly, Sanctis’s left-leaning poem uses the word “comrade,” revealing his past political activism as a student and providing a motive for why he might be interested in helping Elena warn two people in imminent danger, though Sanctis is unsure just how imminent, adding to the suspense. Talking about the Dirty War without coming right out and being explicit is a means of testifying. If we are to read this film as a primary source on contemporary Argentina, why this film had to be made at this point in time, such testimony is necessary for national healing. It is impressive that these ideas could be conveyed with minimal dialogue, evidence of strong storytelling ability. It is not easy to read between the lines but it is quite rewarding.

            The opening scene in the kitchen probably has more dialogue than any other scene in the film. It is used to introduce the viewer to the ordinary Sanctis family which is implicitly put at risk.  If Sanctis acts on behalf of the strangers and gets caught, he will be disappeared, and his wife probably would be too. And yet if he does nothing, the strangers will surely die as a result of his inaction. It is an impossible moral dilemma. The rest of the movie is characterized by long silences, filled only with ambient street noises, though even those are infrequent in the empty streets of suburban Buenos Aires in the middle of the night. There is no score to fill these silences either, forcing the viewer to simply marinade in the silence of an uneventful night—and that is why the film feels so long, and how it so masterfully builds suspense.

            The reason for the excruciating silence is that everyone is scared. Everyone tries to keep to themselves, because it is not worth the risk of engaging with a stranger who might betray you. An extended scene on a bus gives each of the eight passengers a solid fifteen seconds each to themselves. Each individual is terrified, doing nothing but sitting silently afraid.  Make no mistake—it is suspenseful but you must be prepared for a very slow burning film. The directors succeed in creating this atmosphere of fear that will compel those in the audience who can understand the tension. The uncertainty is unsettling, disquieting. The haunting mystery of the unknown nags at you incessantly. I think that is why despite my slight confusion the movie lingered with me.

The scenery is extremely dark, with just street lamps periodically providing a slight orange tint. This fosters a bleak atmosphere building suspense and quiet anticipation.  The viewer feels the tension and fear that Sanctis does, not knowing what or who may be lurking around the corner or in the shadows. Maybe I have just seen too many scary movies during the Festival, but the dark quiet alleyways made me shiver. Testa and Marquez convey the horror that the Dirty War was by using elements of the horror genre. Thankfully, no one ever does jump out from the shadows, but it is the suspense that something could take you by surprise that keeps the viewer scared.  

Unlike other films about the Dirty War that focus on the disappeared themselves, Testa and Marquez look at a man who is uninvolved in politics.  This is a study in the dilemma ordinary Argentinians simply trying to get through life faced on a daily basis. Sanctis faces a tough situation, one that the viewer as an ordinary person can sympathize with. We suffer along with Sanctis and question our own convictions asking what we would do in his situation. He did not ask to be dragged into this dangerous situation and yet he cannot simply do nothing. He struggles with this internal struggle as he meanders through the city. He perhaps wavers a little more than is necessary to convey the same message. The lack of dialogue hinders the viewer from getting inside Sanctis’s thought process, which would have made for some more eventful scenes. The viewer is left to simply read Velazquez’s facial expressions. A monologue would have been helpful though understandably out of character.  But if you have a family, maybe you do not exactly need Sanctis to spell out his dilemma. The viewer is (probably intentionally) forced to look inside himself to transpose his own thought process to Sanctis. Nonetheless, I think the message is clear that the dark reality of politics is inescapable no matter how far removed one may wish to be from conflict. We can comprehend the horror on a personal level because ordinary viewers can plausibly place themselves in Sanctis’s ordinary shoes. The viewer may have no stake in politics, but neither did Sanctis. And that is what is so scary about this situation, if you can comprehend it. 

X-Men: Apocalypse (2016)

What I love about the X-Men series is the complex discussion of politics and the revisionist history making for an engaging story. This movie doesn't do that. Instead, like a typical superhero movie, it delves into mythology, which is less interesting. And X-Men has gotten extraordinarily confusing in terms of timeline. How could this big huge Apocalypse thing have happened in the 80s and we never heard about it in the original trilogy? There is the welcome re-insertion of Jean Grey (Sophie Turner from Game of Thrones!), Nightcrawler, Storm (who is apparently Egyptian now?) and Cyclops, but Angel is a puzzle. Is this a different Angel than the one from the original trilogy? Because his appearance in this film does not fit in with his role in the original. There is a small cameo by Wolverine, which is bizarre because Wolverine usually has a bigger part in X-Men. And if he wasn't going to have a real role, we didn't need the two minutes. The after-credits scene also alluded to something related to Wolverine, probably to connect this to his next standalone movie. The film's greatest strength is fitting Jean Grey's development back into the narrative, seeing as she is one of the most important mutants.  Usually, one of the high points is the Magneto-Professor X dynamic, but I don't think they got enough scenes together this film. And there was really nothing added to their relationship in this story line. Hopefully, the next X-Men movie returns to its roots.

The Taming of the Shrew (The Public Theater) (2016)

This all-female production of a rather misogynistic play was interesting, but certainly strange. It is a twist to make outdated Elizabethan gender roles tolerable and accessible to a modern audience. Janet McTeer as Petrucchio is excellent. She plays a man well. And Cush Jumbo is versatile as Katherina both unruly and tamed. But what was weirdest about this production is the transposition of the Italian-set play to America, specifically Texas. They don't change any of the place names, but the costumes include cowboy hats and leather jackets and plaid. The set looks carnival themed. They read Shakespeare with a twang. Shakespeare is meant to be read with a British accent.

There is an inexplicable beauty pageant in the beginning and end of the play that definitely wasn't written by Shakespeare. It is used to cleverly jab Donald Trump. And maybe a knock at Steve Harvey too? But I'm not entirely sure where it fits into the play. The production is supposed to move away from Shakespeare's original reading of gender stereotypes, but a pageant seems to reinforce them. Unless it's all just to set up the very last moment when tamed Katherina has the title stripped away from her. Maybe that is the intention. I don't know, but it's kind of bizarre.

The Good Wife (2009-16)

The Good Wife has consistently been one of the best shows on TV. In the era of cable television, The Good Wife has been the lone standout on the networks, delivering 23 episodes of high quality drama per season. It was procedural without ever feeling procedural. It was definitely the best legal drama, showing audiences different types of courts, a cast of quirky judges and lawyers, and interesting and innovative interpretations of the law. It glorifies the legal profession and, as an aspiring lawyer, inspires. Apart from the law, the politics was always engaging, especially behind the scenes of the campaign. The show always did a good job reflecting reality, bringing in stories from the current newspapers, like the brilliant NSA arc. Plus the writing was funny. It was overall an enjoyable show to watch--a show I would actually look forward to watching every week.

I didn't really like the finale.  It's one thing to leave us with uncertainty, but doesn't Alicia deserve some finality? Don't we deserve to know that she can be happy? I will always remember Josh Charles's last episode, a shocking moment coming out of left field in the middle of an episode in the middle of one of the best seasons, so we were given plenty of time to process what we'd just seen.

Not only was the main cast excellent, including Emmy winners Julianna Margulies and Archie Panjabi and my favorite Alan Cumming, but the recurring guest cast was phenomenal and memorable as well. Michael J. Fox and Carrie Preston are particular standouts. But each season had several new names worthy of praise. It was a show full of strong female characters played by strong female actors. Julianna Margulies will forever be known for playing The Good Wife. The show's title is a bit of a misnomer. The show quickly became so much more than a show about a woman who stood by her man. She was defined by her own accomplishments and prowess, never merely by her role as a wife.

Deadpool (2016)

Deadpool was good but I don't know if it's as amazing as everyone has been raving. In the same vein as Guardians of the Galaxy, it is a parody of the superhero genre. The difference is the self awareness of Deadpool. He constantly breaks the fourth wall, acknowledging the Marvel cinematic universe ironically. I wonder how he actually fits into that universe as he actively makes fun of it, both the characters and timeline and the actors themselves, aware it is a movie. Is he in X-Men or what? It is unconventionally funny. There is also an exceptional amount of R-rated violence and humor for a Marvel movie. Some of it is excessive. I get that's the point, but sometimes they're just unnecessary side remarks. Ryan Reynolds is perfect for the role, much better than his turn as the Green Lantern. Story-wise it's ok. Its strength is in its comedy.

The Matrix (1999)

I saw this sci-fi classic for the first time on the plane. It is confusing at first but the philosophy is compelling. There are allusions to Plato's Allegory of the Cave in which the learned awaken the masses to reality. The Matrix is a simulated reality, an intricate computer program controlled by machines that we all live in. They create a whole world of mystery. I love the concept--it's mind blowing stuff. The production design is excellent (very computer-like) even if it looked a little dated, but it has been almost two decades. The bullet time effect is original and clever; I guess just seeing it in 2016 makes it look a little cheesy.  It is an action sci-fi movie and the fight sequences are filmed in an innovative way. The fight sequences are excellent, influenced by Hong Kong martial arts movies.

Burnt (2015)

What I really dislike about this movie is that it preys on our love of food. That's how they get you to watch the movie, but it is not worth your time. Bradley Cooper is entirely unlikable as an irrational and erratic chef. It is one thing to be mean in the kitchen--we can watch Hell's Kitchen. But Bradley Cooper's chef is really unbearable, as are most all of the other characters. I don't think that's the fault of acting, rather poor development of already uninteresting characters.The beginning especially is just a series of short vignettes that seemingly come from nowhere, introducing a series of supporting characters to dislike.  I found it hard to pay attention or care. 

The Intern (2015)

This is actually a very cute feel-good movie. Robert DeNiro plays a senior citizen who is doing an internship at an Internet company. DeNiro's character is the type of likable grandfather/mentor figure you want in your life. The company is run by Anne Hathaway, a strong woman used to doing everything herself being pressured to find a CEO for her company. It is refreshing to see Hollywood depicting a woman in charge at a tech company. Though reluctant at first, they become close co-workers. And as expected, they teach each other along the way. It's no revelation, but two solid performances and an unexpectedly good chemistry make for an easy light-hearted comedy. 

Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping (2016)

My biggest criticism of this film is also its greatest asset. That is Andy Samberg. I can handle an SNL Digital Short for five minutes. I like Brooklyn Nine-Nine, which is basically the Andy Samberg show. I can handle twenty minutes of him, but a full-length feature is just too much. His stupid jokes are funny for a little bit, but you get tired of them. He just lingers on them for too long and turns the dial up too high. He plays his usual man boy character. There are a plethora of celebrity cameos from singers and other music industry heavyweights. How did they get all of them? And did they know the movie would be so bad? They each only have a few seconds, a single line. And their appearance is actually so ridiculous in this movie that it makes you laugh. The movie is in a mockumentary format. Taking a page out of 7 Days from Hell, Andy Samberg really likes making fake documentaries. The Lonely Island isn't meant for long form comedy.

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (2016)

Exodus (2015) choreographed by Rennie Harris
Awakening (2015) by Robert Battle
Cry (1971) by Alvin Ailey soloist Jacqueline Green
Revelations (1960) by Alvin Ailey

I really enjoyed watching Alvin Ailey. I don't know too much about dance, but I do appreciate it. I've always seen the posters all over the subway of the very fit dancers contorting their bodies in impossible positions. Finally, I got an opportunity to see them in Baltimore at the historic Lyric Opera House, thanks to Hopart. I didn't realize they took so many intermissions for dance performances, but they understandably have to catch their breath. We were there for about two and a half hours, but almost an hour of that time was spent in intermission. But I loved every minute of dance.

The first dance, Exodus was modern African-inspired. The style reminded me of the performance by Ronald K. Brown I saw last year at the Kennedy Center. The second dance was more contemporary. There was a story to it that made use of bright background lights reminiscent of the lights that shine down from UFOs.

Cry gave me chills. A gorgeous solo number, Jacqueline Green danced with grace and elegance and strength. And then there's Revelations, the signature suite by Alvin Ailey. The music is set to spirituals and blues music and goes through a history of the African American experience through slavery and freedom. It is extraordinarily powerful and moving to watch. There were a few non-black dancers in this one. I guess you can't discriminate, but it is kind of weird for a non-African American dancer to convey the African American experience. 

Le Cercle Rouge (1970)

This movie is notable for an extended heist scene that contains no dialogue. It is pure silence and intense caution for almost 30 minutes. It is highly choreographed and well executed. The movie opens with an epigraph, a quote by Buddha. Except the quote is made up. Perhaps it is to lead the audience to believe in the fate of the characters. Though I don't know it really worked. It might have just confused me as to why it was done. There are tons of symbolic red circles throughout the movie, like the red traffic lights. The most obvious one is the red circle at the top of the billiards cue. There is a great aerial shot of a billiards table. We watch player one take a shot and then another, which we believe to be the same player, but it is actually a new character. It is done in such a fluid movement. They play a version of billiards that I'd never seen before. It is really difficult. You hit the cue ball and try to knock it into two other balls. In some versions, you have to hit a certain number of walls before hitting the second ball. Playing off the walls is hard. The billiards table is symbolic for the director, (in an interview) who claims that all children learn at a young age not to climb on billiards tables. They are symbolic of adulthood, forbidden to young children. No one ever told me that, but sure.

An Autumn Afternoon (Sanma no aji) (1962)

Yasujiro Ozu's final film is about an aging man realizing his parental duty to his daughter to find her a husband. It is a portrait of traditional Japanese society, with all its biases and strengths, reinforcing gender roles. Japanese acting is restrained and straightforward. It is rarely overly emotional. They give each other small grunts of acknowledgement. They almost whisper "hai" to the knock at the door. And these old people sit cross-legged on the floor and get up with no problem. They drink copious amounts of sake. The camera is set up in tatami position very low. The actor is centered and the camera is completely still, with no pans. The music is only present in between scenes as we see exteriors to set the scene. The music is peppier than expected considering the theme of loneliness. Why it's called An Autumn Afternoon, I don't really know. The Japanese title refers to a scene that has nothing to do with autumn or the afternoon. All of the English titles of Ozu's film allude to seasons, major it's just in keeping with the theme. But it seems kind of arbitrary on an individual level.

Meshes of the Afternoon (1943) & At Land (1944)

Maya Deren is an important figure in experimental film making. She creates an experience for the viewer, bending time and playing with our sense of reality. The houses is like something out of an MC Escher painting. She dances around her house in Meshes of the Afternoon in a carefully choreographed short film to the twangs of dissonant strings. She depicts things on screen that can only be done on film, and then shes pushes the limits of the medium. It is surreal and as I've learned from watching Bunuel, when it comes to surrealism you just have to accept it and enjoy the ride. 

Mauvais Sang/The Night is Young (1986)

Denis Lavant is a brooding teenager torn between two women in future Paris. It's a sci-fi gangster movie that actually revolves around romance. It is hard to explain, but the tone of the movie is sci-fi even if the elements of science fiction remain unseen. Somehow it feels futuristic without looking it. Lavant's ringtone is Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet, alluding to tragic love though I'm not sure the ending is so tragic. Perhaps it is actually freeing. There is a famous scene in which Lavant dances to Modern Love by David Bowie. Maybe dance isn't the right word. He contorts his body and drags and beats himself as if he is trapped.  Greta Gerwig in Frances Ha does an homage to this scene. Leos Carax is a stylish director. And I love his clever pseudonym. Put the spaces in the right plae and it spells Le Oscar a X, like The Oscar goes to X. 

My Neighbor Totoro (1988)

Hayao Miyazaki's classic tale of childhood in rural Japan is still good upon a second viewing. The two young girls are very realistic as they yell and scream and play.  Miyazaki typically has strong young female protagonists in his movies By now, Totoro and the cat bus are iconic characters, making cameos in Disney movies and appearing on all sorts of merchandise. Sitting in a French cafe in Cannes, I heard and recognized Joe Hisaishi's soundtrack. It caught everyone's attention as they wondered what the hauntingly beautiful music was. I knew. And then the cutesy main theme played and everyone figured it out cause they say "Totoro." I'm not sure what the instrumentation is though. It sounds metallic, perhaps an organ of some sort. The story tugs at your heart. At its core, it's about family relationships between siblings and between parents and children.  

I, Daniel Blake (2016)

I, Daniel Blake won the Palme d'Or. And don't get me wrong, it's a solid movie. But by no means was it the best. Ken Loach is a bleeding heart liberal and it shows with a fiery passion for two hours straight. His contempt for British bureaucracy is meant to get the viewer riled up. We feel intense anger and immense sadness for the tragic situation that the honest heroes find themselves in, no fault of their own. There is no subtlety. Loach is very straightforward, unabashedly wearing his politics. And the film just keeps hitting you, tearing you further down until you just want to give up. But Daniel Blake doesn't give up. He's a working class hero (and Ken Loach a hero to the working class) and through all the red tape he perseveres. He's extremely compassionate and likable and relatable. There are some cringe-y scene transitions, with a cheesy fade to black to show the passage of time. You see what Ken Loach really thinks about computers, as Daniel Blake gets frustrated trying to figure out how to use it.

Though the film is in English, the thick British accents are almost unintelligible. Funnily enough, the film played with English subtitles. And I found myself reading them to follow along.  It is kind of ironic that it won the Palme d'Or. Maybe the jury felt guilty, acknowledging the plight of regular working people amidst all the glitz and glamor of the exclusive Cannes Film Festival. 

Toni Erdmann (2016)

Toni Erdmann might just be the funniest movie I've ever seen. Some of it is stupid funny--whoopee cushions at the Cannes Film Festival. But it's not just sex jokes like the comedies we get in the US. It's three hours of pure dry humor. And it never feels long. The reason it is so long is that it drags out every joke, milking every laugh it can get from each gag. The humor is highly unexpected and refreshingly honest. As funny as it is, it is equally moving. It should be required viewing for wannabe consultants. The world of management consulting in all its glamor is casted in a less than favorable light. It's not all about money, but about happiness. Ines's father tries to make her happy, tries to make her laugh and while she isn't having it, we have a ball. My favorite scene is one in which Ines sings the entirety of the Whitney Houston classic "The Greatest Love of All," quite well I might add. Everyone in the theater was laughing hysterically. But the scene everyone is talking about is the raucous nude party. And all the promotions include the enormous Bulgarian costume that makes a side-splitting cameo.  This is a faultless brilliant romp. It was a phenomenal way to spend 3 hours.

Paterson (2016)

This is a movie about daily life for a bus driver in Paterson, NJ. And you know how exciting New Jersey is. The most action we get is his bus breaks down. I was waiting for his bus to get hijacked. But his life is too mundane for that. Their dog is cute, but I don't like to give in to animals. Even if Nellie won the Palm Dog posthumously for acting in drag.  It's cheap. Adam Driver plays Kylo Ren, essentially. His acting is flat and monotone, maybe a little less angsty. And he writes poetry, some of which is insufferable. His poem about the matches literally put me to sleep. He and his wife are perfectly content and their marital bliss is almost too perfect. The wife has her hobbies and the husband indulges her. It feels like manufactured happiness.  It is a slow movie that I didn't particularly care for.

Blood Father (2016)

Why do producers think we want to see old guys in action movies? Moreover why would they think we want to see Mel Gibson in anything? William H. Macy provides some comic relief, and the film opens with a joke about the ease with which you can buy bullets in the US (but cigarettes are more difficult). It is a typical action movie that doesn't really give us anything new. The film is otherwise kind of boring and conventional. It's basically Taken, but without the intensity of Liam Neeson. And as much as I don't like Mel Gibson, Erin Moriarty is the worst. She has no redeemable qualities. She's bland and unengaging, like the movie.

The Salesman (Forushande) (2016)

After watching Elle, it was refreshing to see this more delicate depiction of an assaulted woman. Iran gets a bad wrap in the West, but it is a much more nuanced society than we give it credit for. It is simultaneously modern and traditional. Asghar Farhadi is a master at his craft. Shahab Hosseini and Taraneh Alidoosti both give very strong performances as actors performing Death of a Salesman. I didn't quite understand the reference, but I think it has to do with the husband being so focused on his own goals that he doesn't see what his wife actually wants. The movie almost takes a Prisoners like turn. But it isn't quite that sadistic and dark. And it's not as loud as you would expect in an American revenge story. No, it is thoughtful. This movie took a lot of turns that are rather unexpected. It is suspenseful and the last act is super intense and unpredictable. Then the ending is left a little open ended. I wasn't positive how to interpret it, but I think they separate. 

Elle (2016)

This was a terrible movie. And the worst part was that people like it. OK, it has a couple of moments. I appreciate that the French audience could laugh at Catholic jokes. And there is a funny storyline about a black baby. But there is nothing else funny about this movie. And it is disturbing and offensive that other people were laughing so raucously. Moreover, it is so messed up that Paul Verhoeven thought this was OK. There is no situation in which a rape comedy is acceptable.

This is a really sick and misogynistic movie. Verhoeven gets close to redemption by almost portraying a strong independent woman succeeding in a man's world (she makes video games, albeit hypersexualized misogynistic video games). And just when you think that she has overcome her rapist and intimidated him into fear, Verhoeven makes her even more submissive. Elle is portrayed as if she likes rape, as if she is asking for it. What the hell kind of message is that? And in what world is that funny? And the very last couple of minutes just made me livid. When the rapist's wife has the audacity to say "I'm glad you could give him what he needed." What the hell is that supposed to mean? Well, I know exactly what it's supposed to mean, but how the hell is that acceptable? I refuse to believe that this is acceptable behavior in Europe. It can't just be my American sensibilities--it's just outright sick. I am really stunned that this movie has been getting such praise from male and female critics. People are messed up.

Kiss Me Deadly (1955)

Kiss Me Deadly is a film noir. After having taking the film noir class, it was fun to casually see a noir on the beach. It is a mystery that keeps you guessing. It is the original asker of the classic question: what's in the box? I don't know if we get a proper answer, but we get most of an answer so that you can fill in the gaps yourself. We saw the original American ending, but there was an alternative ending that leaves out the final minute or so. It is a much more pessimistic ending, apocalyptic if you will. It is a movie that is reflective of the time in which it was made. In that sense, you can read it as a primary source on Cold War paranoia. I loved the 1950s answering machine. It is enormous! And also he has this oddly close relationship with his mechanic.

The Neon Demon (2016)

There is only one good thing about this movie, and that is the cinematography. Many of the shots you might find in a Vogue photoshoot. They are stylish and glitzy. The models: stoic and sexy. The first third of the film makes use of bold colors and lights, especially in the club scene. But after that, it seems like Refn gives up on style, and is just going for shock. His manner of shock is disgusting and misogynistic (and would have guessed that cannibalism would be a common theme in the Festival?). The characters are flat and one-dimensional, reducing these women to vicious animals, and one deer in the headlights.  Concerning the male characters, their stories are underdeveloped and unfinished. We are left hanging, not that I was ever really invested in them enough to care. Sure, I get the message about the modeling industry--but it is an inherently misogynistic one. As far as plot goes, there is beginning and end, but the middle is severely lacking. You are constantly asking "what the heck is happening?" Take the catwalk for example. What was the inexplicable triforce light doing there? I would go so far as to say it is boring and offensive movie. 

Dog Eat Dog (2016)

I was a little disappointed that Nicholas Cage didn't show up to the morning screening, but I was otherwise pleasantly surprised by his performance. This could have been a tired old crime story, but under Paul Schrader's direction we get a fresh take. In the Q&A, he gave an example of how he updated the classic genre. The strip club has been done before, so he did it in black and white. And the contrast between the black and white with the solid vibrant blues and reds (notably resembling police lights, or a drug-induced high) is striking. The use of color in this film is one of its greatest stylistic strengths. Willem Dafoe is really creepy. The first shot is a close up of his deranged face. And then in a manner reminiscent of a Quentin Tarantino film, he commits an admittedly stylish bloody double murder.  And then of course there is Nicholas Cage. And he is Nicholas Cage as usual, but it kind of works here. It is almost a parody of that type of character and he plays it up.

Gimme Danger (2016)

It's not a bad film, it's just not a midnight movie. At midnight, you need a blockbuster to keep you up. This movie lacked explosiveness. And I found that not being familiar with Iggy Pop's music made it difficult to care. I just wasn't really engaged with the movie. And it was too late and I was too tired to try very hard. But Iggy Pop showed up, naturally without a shirt. I don't think he passes the red carpet dress code, but they let him through. It is a pretty typical documentary with talking head interviews and archival clips. One weird thing was I thought the font they use in the movie was borderline illegible. It was something you'd find on a Halloween party invitation. It seemed inappropriate for a documentary about a rock musician.

Risk (2016)

Risk is Laura Poitras's latest documentary about Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. She has been filming Assange since 2011, before she started work on Citizenfour as well as after. And this is where I got a little confused. From watching Citizenfour, I understood that Edward Snowden reached out to her because of her previous work on the Iraq War. But I'm not so sure about that anymore. Did Snowden know about her Assange project and is that why he contacted her? Did Assange actually connect her with Snowden? What was so incredible about Citizenfour was that she was in that Hong Kong hotel room in the moment. Was it luck? Not exactly, but it was certainly fortuitous. Here, she has an incredible amount of access to Assange in the Ecuadorian embassy, but it is not quite as eventful and thrilling as Citizenfour. Perhaps it is unfair to compare though. This film has lots of merits. It really is an excellent and insightful documentary. Less confined, Poitras's camerawork is more developed. She composes her shots well and builds tension and anger. She asks her audience to question the government. She has proven herself to be one of this generation's most important filmmakers, indispensable. And after seeing her retrospective exhibit at the Whitney Museum earlier this year, I could fully appreciate her sacrifice and efforts.

There is a scene in the film that is an interview between Lady Gaga and Julian Assange. It is an awkward celebrity cameo that I certainly didn't see coming. But it is a bit of much needed comic relief to release some of the tension. And Lady Gaga is fabulous as always.  

Graduation (Bacalaureat) (2016)

This movie was surprisingly very good. Romanian cinema is vibrant and well. On the surface, it is about a father who is willing to do whatever it takes to help his daughter, who was assaulted. But it is not a revenge story as it would be in America. It is actually not about revenge at all. There is some nuance. His daughter needs to pass her final exams to accept her scholarship, but shaken up, she is not her usual smart self. This is a story that could've taken place in a different developing country, but it is unique to this world where corruption reigns supreme. I rub your back and you rub mine. This look at Eastern Europe is illuminating. Adrian Titieni gives an excellent performance as the concerned father. And things get particularly interesting when he has to drag his innocent daughter into his schemes.

The titular graduation is something of a joke. I learned that in Europe, they don't do big graduation ceremonies. There isn't really any ceremony. They all gather in the playground, no gowns, no pomp, no chairs, a few speeches. And then they hilariously gather for a picture. They get in formation for this picture unnaturally fast. There is no way that any group of human beings could line up for a picture that quickly. Otherwise, it is a very realistic film. And it is this real melodrama that makes it so compelling.

It's Only the End of the World (Juste la Fin du Monde) (2016)

From what I've seen of Xavier Dolan at the closing ceremony, he is beloved by his fellow filmmakers, but derided by the critics. And he gets teary very easily. He cried even watching other people win awards. He's like the John Boehner of the Cannes Film Festival.

But about the film…in short, I didn't like it. There are some good things about it amidst a cluster of bad things. I appreciate Dolan's style. There is a great use of head-banging pop music accompanied by strong colors and quick cuts. There is an excellent wordless dream-like scene of stylish reminiscing. The cinematography is gorgeous. He makes use of a very shallow depth of field, focusing on one thing at a time, leaving the rest of the shot in a blur. There are very close-up shots of faces (often crying or teary eyed) that are kind of unsettling. The acting is very good but the script that they're dealing with is just too emotional. There is so much yelling and screaming and I don't think it's all justified. Because the script is so circuitous. It goes around in circles without getting anywhere and freaking Antoine just riles everyone up sometimes seemingly for the hell of it. And I'm just so sick of Antoine. He provides all the drama, but his brand of drama is just exhausting and excessive. 

After the Storm (Umi yori mo Mada Fukaku) (2016)

This was one of my favorite films in the festival but I am having a little difficulty explaining why. Perhaps it is the humility of the characters, the realistic and relatable qualities of a flawed individual. Kiki Kilin is hilarious. I think she is like Japan's Betty White, still going and cracking jokes. Even if that's a bad analogy, she is certainly a big star. This is a family drama that is funny about a divorced father trying to reconnect with his son and ex-wife. It is simultaneously heartbreaking and heartwarming and side-splitting without ever being saccharine--a delicate balance. It is simply a well executed relatively simple film. It's faultless. It doesn't need to be flashy, just good acting and good writing. 

The Red Turtle (Le Tortue Rouge) (2016)

Studio Ghibli is back! And in fine form. After closing shop, Studio Ghibli co-produced this film by Michael Dudok de Wit. De Wit, an Academy Award winning short filmmaker, first caught the eye of the Japanese master Miyazaki with a short film. And presented the chance at a collaboration, he made his first feature length film. It is complete devoid of dialogue, save for a few screams, universal in any language. The music is hauntingly magical, even though not composed by Ghibli regular Joe Hisaishi. It is extraordinarily high pitched, ethereal, other worldly. And the animation does transport you to another world. It is a necessarily simple story without dialogue, straight out of Castaway.  It is actually an extraordinarily lovely story once the eponymous Red Turtle is introduced. What it can show us without telling us is very impressive. It is beautifully if simply rendered. And continuing the theme of animals as the manifestation of God (see Two Lovers and a Bear), there is the Red Turtle.

The Wailing (Goksung) (2016)

This Korean film Goksung has a few different names, like the Wailing. The French title is actually another English title, The Stranger. It refers to a Japanese man in a Korean village. The movie has a pretty negative depiction of the Japanese, as expected from a Korean perspective. What is a little more surprising is its commentary on religion. It definitely says something about Christianity and about traditional shamanism, but after sitting through 2.5 hours, I'm not positive what the message is for it is seemingly critical of both.  A number of people left the theater during the shaman ritual, which was admittedly over the top and proved a little too much for their French sensibilities. It really harps on the doubting Thomas, seeing-is-believing story, but I'm not sure if we're meant to believe in the end even after we've seen it. In short, I was still quite confused by the end and discussing it only brought slight clarity. The film opens with a passage from the Bible, which is later referred to in the film. But what we hear in dialogue seemingly contradicts what we see on screen. So then what purpose does the epigraph serve? Is it to throw us off the scent? Is it to mock Christianity or perhaps all religion?

The movie is a gruesome horror film. It was not marketed that way in the synopsis. I thought it was going to be a police detective mystery. But that is misleading because a mystery should have a clever solution, whereas this film offers no clear solution. And though he is nominally a police officer, there is some really shoddy police work in this movie. Why don't you arrest him? I was not expecting to see so many scary movies at a classy film festival like Cannes. And this was probably the scariest one I saw. It isn't a zombie movie how we know them, but there are certainly elements of zombie movies in it. It preys on our fear of the unknown and succeeds in keeping us up at night. 

Two Lovers and a Bear (2016)

Nunavut looks like a terrible place to live. Why would anyone want to live in the perpetual cold, hours away from just about everything? It is in this un"bear"able isolation that this film takes place. The two lovers have just each other. Well, and a bear. It's really strange. So this guy can talk to bears (to a manifestation of God?), but does he really talk to bears or does he imagine himself talking to bears? I think probably the latter cause he's delusional. That's what they all have in common--they're all a little mentally disturbed. Tatiana Maslany and Dane DeHaan both play that type of character convincingly. 

Fiore (2016)

After watching this movie, I'm not entirely sure why it is called Fiore. But that doesn’t detract from the movie. It is a sweet saccharine love story that ends predictably but properly. It follows a young romance that develops in a detention center. At times it almost feels like Orange is the New Black, humanizing criminals. The detention center isn't all bad. There are opportunities to have fun and make friends. It is almost even an uplifting image of Italian social services. I can only imagine that it is probably an inaccurate depiction but I can't say for sure. Daphne Soccia is a refreshing newcomer, playing in every scene and stealing many of them. I wasn't crazy about the male lead, Josciua Algeri. I can't quite say why, cause it's not like he was bad, I just didn't think his chemistry with Daphne worked quite right.

Julieta (2016)

Julieta is an excellent movie about a woman looking back on her life, realizing how little she knows about her daughter. There are two phenomenally emotional performances by Adriana Ugarte playing the younger Julieta and Emma Suarez as the older Julieta. In one fabulous shot, we see Julieta age and transform in a magical switch underneath a towel. It is a movie about a mother-daughter relationship; Pedro Almodovar returns to the theme of family and women (The people who gave us their extra invitations mislead us into believing that the protagonist was a lesbian). The character development is rich and skillfully told. As the story is primarily told in flashback, there is a natural suspense as we wonder how we get from the past to the present. For much of the film, we are left wondering what exactly the drama is. The brilliantly composed suspenseful music doesn't match the tone of the film (but rather cleverly anticipates it) until we finally realize the motive towards the end of the movie. The style is colorful and grand. The cinematography ranges from subtle to epic in the mountains of Spain. And while the ending might not provide the full closure that some clamor for, it was sufficiently satisfying to me.

Hell or High Water (2016)

Hell or High Water is representative of a foreigner's perception of America. The British director David MacKenzie nails all the Texas stereotypes to the point of hilarity. I think the racism is meant to be funny, but there are some other observations that are accurate and ridiculous but probably not meant to make you laugh, like the ubiquity of firearms.  I really liked the screenplay. It starts at a bank robbery gone wrong. And slowly, the story unravels giving us insight into the process and motive behind the protagonists' actions. And it is actually very clever. Thinking back, I think they drop us hints along the way if you're astute enough to pick up on them. It is not just some heist film. There was some genuine thought to put into this story. And Chris Pine and Ben Foster execute their roles with care. There is also a good use of country music to move along the story. I don't really like country music, but it undeniably works in this context. Like I said, it's stereotypical Texas.

And the cast was there! Minus Jeff Bridges. But we saw Chris Pine, Captain Kirk himself! He was having a grand old time. And why shouldn't he? It's a fun movie.