A Cure For Wellness Review

3.0 Stars

 

A Cure For Wellness is a psychological thriller about a remote spa in the Swiss Alps.  Lockhart (Dane DeHaan) is an ambitious young executive who is tasked with retrieving Pembroke (Harry Groener) the CEO of their company from this spa.  When he arrives, it looks like a mix between a luxury spa and an insane asylum.  There are people doing yoga, exercising, swimming.  They are normal activities done in a creepy looking facility.  Lockhart meets a young woman, Hannah (Mia Goth) who asks if he's there to take the Cure.  He laughs and says he's on his way out.  She comments that no one ever leaves.

When Lockhart arrives, he asks to see Pembroke.  They are passively uncooperative at the "spa", but reluctantly agree to let him visit after 7pm when Pembroke's treatment is finished.  Lockhart agrees to come back and as he leaves the "spa", his driver hits a deer and their car crashes in the woods.  He awakes back at the facility and is being treated for a broken leg.  They convince Lockhart to be treated by them, and he decides to turn his retrieval mission into an investigation of the strange spa that is obviously anything but normal.

Other than that, you really don't get too much from the previews, no matter how many you watch.  But, if you're into psychological thrillers, the images that are beautifully terrifying, classically creepy, and oddly curious make you want to see A Cure For Wellness.  We saw orderlies in tight white t-shirts, white pants and white shoes conducting exercise classes and wheeling patients down long tiled corridors with flickering fluorescent lights overhead.  At one point, Lockhart is submersed in a water tank with a breathing tube and is suddenly surrounded by eels.  

 

The movie itself is hard to describe.  It's like Stanly Kubrik's Clockwork Orange mixed with Steven King's Misery mixed with the Saw movie franchise.  A Cure For Wellness was directed by Gore Verbinksi who directed three of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, the cartoon Rango, the failed Lone Ranger reboot, and The Ring.  Verbinski is quite eclectic in his directing ventures and did a great job creating this freaky nightmare that will have you cringing in your seat at times.  

 

It looked like a strange, unsettling, bizarre, crazy, awful thriller.  I gave it a 3.5 Star Prediction.  I'm going to lower the rating slightly to 3 Stars.  It wouldn't be a waste of money in the theatre, it's definitely money better spent as a rental, but most likely not one I'd own.  Mostly, it just moves along too slowly.  The movie is about 2 hours and 20 minutes long and it feels like it.  The last half hour or so, really ends the movie with a bang though.  A lot of revelation and action packed into a well-done conclusion to the movie.   So, what movie will be on my mind next? We shall see.

 

Fences Review

3.0 Stars

 

Every boy and girls has dreams of what they'd like to be when they grow up: an astronaut, a ball player, a ballerina, a princess.  Fences is the story of Troy Maxson (Denzel Washington) who had a dream to play baseball.  Growing up in the early 1900's, that dream was impossible for him as African Americans weren't allowed to play professional baseball until Jackie Robinson broke through that racial wall in 1947.  By that time, the league deemed Maxson too old to play and he continued his career as a sanitation worker in Pittsburgh to provide for his family.  He tried to be the good husband and father, but the pain of missed opportunity grew to resentment and anger over the years putting a strain on his family.

Troy's wife, Rose (Viola Davis) tells him that their son, Cory (Jovan Adepo) is being looked at by a college recruiter to play football.  Troy is set against it.  Being a talented baseball player never got him anything.  Tensions grow so deep in their family, Cory actually confronts his father asking why he never liked him.  Troy's response is "What law says I have to like you?"  His job is to put food on the table and a roof over their heads.  He advises Cory that he can't go through life worrying about if anybody likes him. And that's just one of many problems facing the Maxsons.  Troy's other son is a struggling musician who stops by regularly for money.  Troy's brother suffered a major head injury while in the military. Troy is summoned to meet with union representatives after questioning his boss why only white men get to drive the sanitation trucks.  And Troy is also dealing with other demons finding solace at another woman's home. 

Fences has been nominated for 4 Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Leading Actor (Denzel Washington), Best Leading Actress (Viola Davis) and Best Adapted Screenplay (August Wilson).  August Wilson was an American playwright who wrote a series of ten plays called The Pittsburgh Cycle.  He won two Pullitzer Prizes for drama.  Fences earned him one of those.  Wilson was always revered for his portrayal of African Americans with humor, drama, and real brutal honesty.  Washington and Davis brought every ounce of emotion from his writing and from the era to life in a film that is a slow, methodical, character-driven realistic tragedy of American Pittsburgh in the 1950's.  

I gave what looked like a beautifully and sincerely acted drama a 4 Star Prediction.  At this point, I need to remind you of what my rating scale means.  5 Stars does not necessarily mean a movie is Oscar-worthy.  It's more about my own personal preferences and the likelihood of my owning said movie and watching it repeatedly.  By the same token 3 or 4 stars does not mean I hated the movie.  In fact, I can see a movie and agree with it being nominated or even winning awards and still only give it 3 stars if seeing it once is enough for me.  With that in mind, I'm giving Fences 3 Stars.  Directed by and starring Denzel Washington, the August Wilson play was literally brought directly from the stage to the big screen.  It had the same feeling as watching Oklahoma or Glengarry Glen Ross or Six Degrees of Separation.  That's not a bad thing, but it felt very much like watching a Broadway production on a movie screen rather than a screenplay that was adapted for a motion picture.  And Washington and Davis gave performances that would surely earn either of them a Tony Award Nomination.  Though I don't disagree with their nominations for Oscars, I don't see either of them winning for their roles, nor do I see Fences taking home the trophy for Best Picture of the year.  It was real, beautiful, smart, funny, tragic and wonderful; but for me, once was enough.  If this was a stage performance making a tour like Wicked or Phantom of the Opera, I could see wanting to catch it again the next time it's in town.  Being a major motion picture, though, I doubt I'll be watching it again and I'm sure I won't be owning Fences.  So, what movie will be on my mind next?  We shall see.

Her Review

3.0 Stars 

 

Her stars Joaquin Phoenix as Theodore, a writer who is going through the final stages of a divorce.  Theodore delves deeper into playing video games and escapes into the latest technological gadgets to occupy himself.  When he hears about the OS1, the world's first artificially intelligent operating system, he has to have it.  Theodore is quickly taken in with Samantha (Scarlett Johansson), the voice of OS1.  He falls for the voice in his electronic box and Samantha falls for him as well.  This creates a whole new world of problems for Theodore that he never imagined, but it also opens his eyes and his heart to things he never felt before.

In the preview, Her portrays Samantha the OS1 as a computer with a personality.  She is heard telling Theodore that it's 5am and asks if he would like to try to get out of bed on time in a playful way.  She also takes the liberty of reading his emails and inquires about his recent divorce which leads to questions about love and marriage.  The preview also shows two other women in Theodore's life: Catherine (Rooney Mara) and Amy (Amy Adams).  Although it isn't clear from the preview, it seems Amy is the supportive, encouraging and understanding friend where Catherine is the condescending and judgmental sister to Theodore.  At least that's what I gathered from the clip. Actually, Amy is a good friend who is in a loveless marriage.  She fully supports Theodore in his pursuit of love, no matter who or what he finds it with.  Catherine is actually his ex wife.  They have fallen out of love because Theodore wanted all the romance with none of the reality of an actual relationship.  She thinks it silly that Theodore has fallen for a computer, but also admits that it makes sense.  

Her is nominated for 5 Oscars including Best Picture of the Year and Best Original Music.   Though none of the actors in Her were nominated for their performance, Phoenix should have been.  While Theodore struggles with relationships with humans, he still greatly desires love and affection.  One sleepless night, he calls an adult chat line.  The call is erotic in nature and quickly turns bizarre as the female on the other line wants him to choke her with a dead cat.   Theodore purchases a new personalized Operating System called the OS1.  Immediately after installing it, he is asked a couple questions about his personality and voila, the OS1 is online.  Upon asking OS1 its name, the voice replies Samantha.  She comments that she gave the name to herself because she liked the sound of it.  Due to her team of programmers, she understands sarcasm, humor, anger, sadness and quickly "feels" them for herself.  They grow together and fall in love.  Because of his relationship with Samantha, Theodore finds the strength to finalize the divorce with Catherine.  Eventually, Theodore's relationship with his OS1 meets the same fate as the one he had with Catherine; however, after losing Samantha, he is able to truly let go of his past relationships and his own past and face the future.

While I think Joaquin Phoenix might have been overlooked for an Oscar nomination for his performance in this movie, I don't think Her is deserving of the Best Picture of the Year.  I thought it was a unique story and well told and very well acted, but I felt the story was slow and honestly boring at times.  It was both sad and heart-warming and was not a "happily ever after" tale of love.  Just because someone has a new and fresh idea doesn't mean it's the best of all the films out there and I felt that Her fell short of other movies that deserve the recognition.  I gave it 3.0 stars.  I didn't think it a waste of money, but I'm not anxious to see it again and it will not be making it to my home collection.  So, what movie will be on my mind next?  We shall see.

Dallas Buyers Club Review

3.0 Stars

Dallas Buyers Club is based on the true story of an electrician / rodeo bull rider Ron Woodroof (Matthew McConaughey) and his unlikely campaign to spread awareness and provide comfort and medicine for those who contracted AIDS.  The story is set in Dallas in 1985 where Woodroof works hard and plays even harder, drinking, smoking, abusing illegal drugs and having casual sex.  After seeing a doctor after a work-related injury, Woodroof is informed he has the AIDS virus and is given a month to live.  At first, his ignorance and bravado prompt a defiant denial.  Once he comes to terms and accepts the facts, he refuses to accept that there's nothing he can do.  He does whatever he can to find treatments to at least prolong his life.  In the process, he befriends and helps others who are afflicted with AIDS, others he would normally have nothing to do with.  He dances dangerously between two worlds: the public world in which he provides assistance and medicine, and the private world trying to stay hidden from the FDA and authorities.  

Dallas Buyers Club has been nominated for six Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Actor in a Leading Role (Matthew McConaughey) and Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Jared Leto).  Leto has been nominated and won dozens of awards for his role as Rayon in Dallas Buyers Club.  Rayon is a cross-dressing prostitute who starts as Woodroof's business partner and ends up his friend as Woodroof's greedy nature evolves into compassion.  When hospitals refuse to give Woodroof any treatment for his AIDS because the medicine has not been approved by the FDA, his investigation leads him to Mexico.  There, Woodroof concocts a scheme to make a lot of money by smuggling the experimental medication into the United States and distributing the drugs to those who need it.  In an effort to evade the FDA, Woodroof starts the Dallas Buyers Club and sells memberships, not drugs.  The drugs just come with the membership.  At first, this is just a way for Woodroof to prolong his own life and make some money in the process.  Somewhere along the way, he finds himself compelled to actually fight for the right of those with the AIDS virus to obtain treatment and to be treated not only for their illness, but also as human beings.

 

 The movie is exactly what the preview proclaims it to be: the story of Ron Woodroof dealing with contracting the AIDS virus, fighting with hospitals that are handcuffed by the FDA as far as what treatments they are allowed to administer, fighting with the FDA which is less concerned about actual treatment and more concerned about profit, and fighting with stereotypes about those who have contracted the virus.  It's a sad story, it's upsetting, and it was brilliantly acted by McConaughey and Leto who definitely deserve the Oscar nominations they have received.  But I don't feel the movie itself is worthy of the nomination for best picture of the year.  I felt is was slow and boring at times in spite of the outstanding acting performances.  I gave it 3.0 stars as I don't feel it was a waste of money, but I'm not excited to see it again and this won't be making it to my personal collection.  I'd say it's a good renter or matinee in the theatres.  So, what movie will be on my mind next?  We shall see.

Gravity Review

3.0 Stars

 

Gravity is the harrowing tale of the survival of brilliant medical engineer Dr. Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) and and veteran astronaut Matt Kowalsky (George Clooney) in space.  This is Stone's first mission to space and Kowalsky's last before retiring.  While out on a seemingly routine spacewalk, tragedy strikes.  Debris from a nearby Russian satellite that has just exploded destroys their ship and the space station, killing the rest of the crew and leaving Stone and Kowalsky drifting away by themselves.  

This looks like a combination of Apollo 13 in which astronauts were trapped inside their damaged shuttle and Open Water in which two scuba divers are stranded in shark infested waters with no land in sight.  Gravity appears to be the worst of both of those scenarios; however, for me, it failed to truly capture the sense of desperation.  The film starts with about a ten minute continuous shot of Dr. Stone (Bullock) working on updating a satellite in space while Kowalsky (Clooney) is maneuvering around the satellite and the shuttle.  The cinematography is brilliant as the camera captures shots of the earth, of deep space, of Dr. Stone, of the shuttle and of Kowalsky.  The crew is alerted that the Russians have destroyed one of their own satellites with a missile and debris is heading their way.  Although the movie opens with the notes that sound does not travel through space, for dramatic effect, we hear the debris screaming past the astronauts and the ship being torn apart. The debris sends Dr. Stone and Kowalsky hurdling through space.  They are separated and Dr. Stone has no way to stop herself from floating away.  Though we spend a few minutes tumbling frantically with her, it seemed Kowalsky was able to track her down rather quickly and they both made their way back to the shuttle to assess the damages.  Upon arriving at the ship, we learn that Dr. Stone and Kowalsky are the only two survivors.  Peering into the wreckage of the shuttle, silently alone in space, the bodies of two other crew members killed in the accident come floating towards Dr. Stone and the silence is broken up with sharp and loud music heightening the terror of discovering the dead bodies.  Sometimes I feel that less is more and that the horrified reaction of Dr. Stone alone would have been scarier than the manipulated fear the accompanying music tried to create.  Gravity has been nominated for 10 Oscars including Best Original Music, but I felt that the music actually took away from the movie rather than complimented it in many parts of the film.

After realizing their shuttle is completely destroyed, Dr. Stone and Kowalsky make their way to the International Space Station where they will hopefully use one of the pods to make their way back to earth.  Dr. Stone is running low on oxygen and Kowalsky keeps her talking to keep her calm and conserve her oxygen.  But he also has a problem as his jet pack is running low of propulsion fuel.  Once they make it to the ISS, Kowalsky quickly realizes, they both won't be able to make it and one of them must go forward without the other.  He sacrifices himself and she enters the ISS.  I know that he is a professional astronaut and makes the smart decision to allow Dr. Ryan to continue, but I felt the scene was just a little too quick and emotionless again failing to create the sense of Dr. Ryan's situation getting more and more desperate and hopeless.  Once inside the ISS, Dr. Ryan realizes the boosters on the remaining escape pod have been damaged and she appears to be trapped.  She quickly gives up on herself and shuts down the oxygen supply to her ship.  Miraculously, Kowalsky reappears claiming he was able to find a little more juice in his jet pack to make it back to her and reminds her that there's still a way to power the escape pod enough to make it to a nearby Chinese satellite which should still have an escape pod to make it to earth.  It turns out, predictably to me, that the Kowalsky return is a hallucination, but it's enough to prompt Dr. Stone to give it another shot.  She resupplies her pod with oxygen and makes her way to the Chinese satellite.  There is, indeed, a remaining pod and she's able to use the pod to safely return to earth.

The movie is only an hour and a half long.  With so many movies often eclipsing the two hour length, it seems that a few more minutes of excruciating and awkward silence could have been added to some scenes to create the feeling of hopelessness and futility of the situation.  I felt there was always hope and always a way out for Dr. Ryan.  I was disappointed with the use of musical accompaniment to create emotions when I felt the situation by itself would have achieved the effect much more successfully.  I felt the long continuous shots of the astronauts in space were ground-breaking and gorgeous.  My only complaint about that would be the times when water splashed on the camera lens.  This is a technique used sometimes in movies to create the effect that you, the viewer, are right there in the middle of the action.  However, in a 3D movie, the water on the lens just created a blurry distraction.  I felt that Sandra Bullock gave an incredible performance.  I can see why she was nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress, but I will have to see the rest of the nominees before deciding if she is the worthy recipient.  Ultimately, Gravity fell short of my expectations which is why I gave it 3 stars.  It was worth the money to see it, but I probably won't see it again and it won't be making its way to my personal collection.  So, what movie will be on my mind next?  We shall see.

Lee Daniels' The Butler Review

3.0 Stars

Lee Daniels' The Butler stars Forest Whitaker as White House Butler Cecil Gaines. Gaines grew up in the 1920's as a sharecropper and is offered a position as butler in the White House in the 1950's.  A model of professionalism and discretion, Gaines' career spanned several decades allowing him to serve under several Presidents, witness the effects of the American Civil Rights Movement, the Vietnam War, and other significant events in the history of the United States.  While America struggles with these issues, Cecil struggles at home with family issues.  His wife Gloria (Oprah Winfrey) battles her addictions and his son Louis (David Oyelowo) defiantly strives to find justice in the world. 

The Butler was a bit of a let down.  I know it was based on a true story, but I felt the way the story was told was very unbalanced.  There were so many times when they were focused on Cecil's work in the White House that I was wondering how this would affect his family and there were just as many times when the focus switched to his family life that I found myself longing to see him more in the White House.  Though Forest Whitaker gave an amazing performance, quite possibly Oscar-nominating worthy, I felt the film dragged. 

The Butler featured a veritable who's who of Hollywood's A-list actors that really didn't get publicized in previews.  One of the ways I knew this was moving slowly was that I was more intrigued by the "game" of who is going to make a guest appearance next.  Like JFK, the Oceans Trilogy and The Departed, every actor shy of Kevin Bacon seemed to get in on the action of this movie.  Mariah Carey and Oprah Winfrey starred as Gaines' family.  Vanessa Redgrave as slave owner Annabeth Westfall.  Terrence Howard lived next door and Gaines worked with Cuba Gooding, Jr. and Lenny Kravitz in the White House.  James Marsden and Minka Kelly played John and Jackie Kennedy, Alan Rickman and Jane Fonda appeared as Ronald and Nancy Reagan, Liev Shreiber was Lyndon B. Johnson, John Cusack played Richard Nixon and Robin Williams portrayed Dwight D. Eisenhower. 

This movie had all the potential in the world to be an Oscar contender for Best Film.  I'm not sure what went wrong with all the star power they had working for them, but for me, it was not all it could or should have been.  It was an original concept, but poorly executed.  I gave The Butler 3 stars as I did enjoy it, but this will not be making it to my DVD collection.  So what movie will be on my mind next?  We shall see.

Beasts of the Southern Wild Review

3 Stars

In a small shrimping bayou town known as The Bathtub, Beasts of the Southern Wild is the story of six year old Hushpuppy who is "raised" by her wildman of a father named Wink.  Her mother is not in the picture and she is more often left in the company of various wild beasts of the bayou rather than family.  At six years old, Hushpuppy believes that life in the bayou and in the universe is fragile and depends on everything fitting together perfectly.  Her world, and the world around her is rocked when Wink contracts a mysterious disease the same time global warming results in melting ice caps and the unleashing of prehistoric beasts.  A storm nearly destroys The Bathtub and Hushpuppy and Wink manage to survive.  Hushpuppy can't bear to watch her dying father so she sets out to find her estranged mother, learning about herself and the real world in the process.

I've been teetering on the fence about giving this 2.5 or 3 stars.   It was a decent movie.  The preview and the plot synopsis were a little misleading.  I was lead to believe that the father was more physically non-existent in young Hushpuppy's life.  The truth is, Wink raised her the best he could, preparing her to be a strong, independent woman who doesn't need to rely on anyone for anything.  Ironically, this completely contradicts Hushpuppy's view on life which is everything fitting together perfectly to keep the fragile universe working properly.  And anything that is done wrong, must be undone to set things in proper motion again.  The preview made it seem like this story would be more of a survival adventure weathering the storm and the aftermath; abandoning her ailing father in search of her estranged mother; epic prehistoric beasts on the loose.  Actually the storm sequence was over pretty quickly, the aftermath was pretty much life as usual in The Bathtub for those who chose to stay behind, she didn't abandon her father but came to understand and accept he wasn't fit to take care of her, the search for her mother lasted all of ten minutes and ended with a weird bayou brothel scene, and the prehistoric beasts were nothing more than a metaphor for those who lived in The Bathtub.

All that made me want to give 2.5 stars, but I bumped it up for the great performance of Quvenzhané Wallis definitely deserves recognition for her role as Hushpuppy.  Oscar worthy?  That may be a little stretch, but only a little.  She was great.  And I also give kudos to young director Benh Zeitlin for getting that performance out of Wallis.  Look for more great things from these two in the future.  So officially, Beasts of the Southern Wild gets 3 stars.  Worth catching a matinee or renting, but most likely won't be making my home collection.  So what movie will be on my mind next?  We shall see.