Widows

Score:  A-

Directed by Steve McQueen
Starring Viola Davis, Elizabeth Debicki, Cynthia Erivo, Michelle Rodriguez, Liam Neeson, et. al.
Running time:
Rated R

Long Story Short:  Widows, a heist film, is an abrupt change of pace for the Oscar-winning Steve McQueen, but it delivers as a well-made, entertaining as well as thoughtful film.  The main cast is all-female, like Ocean's Eight, but the similarities end there, as the film delves more deeply and seriously into the characters' lives and related political machinations.  Highly recommended.


A group of robbers, led by Harry Rawlings (Neeson), is killed by police when a job goes south.  Harry's wife, Veronica (Davis), and the other widows soon learn about their spouse's secret lives, as one of their targets, a local Chicago political candidate named Manning (Henry) demands restitution.  Manning is running against a green Jack Mulligan (Farrell), who was a friend of Harry's and is next in his family's dynastic line.  Veronica also discovers her late husband's secret notebook of plans, which lays out his would-be next heist - on an all-too-familiar target.  As Manning's brother Jamal (Kaluuya) menaces her with a deadline, Veronica desperately prepares for a literal do-or-die job with her new friends.

Widows has an enormous cast of talented actors, capably led by the titular foursome.  Viola Davis plays the leader of this group, and none could have done it better.  Initially, grieving the loss of her husband and put upon by Manning, her performance resembles her Oscar-winning role in Fences.  She portrays a remarkable combination of strength and vulnerability in quiet moments as she ponders her past life, wiping away tears one moment yet composing herself and striding forth with steely determination the next.  Through her subtle acting, you truly get to know this woman in transition, from dignified yet naive wife of a powerful (yet criminal) man, to a strong, independent woman figuring things out on the fly.  She doesn't instantly transform into a master, and she retains an edge of tension till the end, but also shows her considerable leadership and courage.  Elizabeth Debicki gets the next biggest role, a formerly abused trophy wife, underestimated yet quite intelligent and capable.  The transformation here is a bit more abrupt, but Debicki's performance is great, sharp-edged at times and subtly observed at others.  Cynthia Erivo, joining the group later on, provides some highlights of physicality, though Michelle Rodriguez is given a bit of short shrift (granted, she's probably the least talented of the ensemble).  Colin Farrell does well as a politician who looks the part, but is insecure and overwhelmed by expectations, countered nicely by the smooth and savvy but frustrated Manning played by Brian Tyree Henry.  Neeson is a suitable presence in his flashback scenes, but the standouts in supporting roles are Robert Duvall as Mulligan's father, a declining yet powerful son of a bitch and Daniel Kaluuya as a cruel and unhinged, behind-the-scenes enforcer for Manning.

Widows is really good, an engaging thriller and heist film yet also one with intriguing character work and broader social observations.  Although the film begins with a brief but harrowing scene of Neeson and co. literally going up in flames, most of the tension and excitement in the film is not from the main heist and its preparation, but from the development of the characters and the intriguing web they form.  We get a glimpse of the lives of the widows, pre-doomsday, revealing hurt and neglect.  Even Veronica, treated better than her peers, realizes her husband has left her in an impossible situation.  You see the difficulty in their overcoming the shock, fear, and then mutual suspicion of one another, and then start to come into their own in this bizarre, desperate situation.  The tone is certainly serious, sometimes even dark (typically when the bad guys flex their muscles) but the women's efforts, struggling yet steadily succeeding, keep the film's realism while providing a glimpse of good in the world (at times even optimism).  When it's finally go-time for the heist, you fully believe in the abilities of these four women, but also realize it's not going to be a walk in the park.

While the women deservedly take center stage in adjusting to their new lives and working together to prepare the heist, an intriguing - and narratively adjacent - political battle takes place.  We get to see how this part of Chicago could lead to such criminality in the first place, with ruthless leaders lording over desperate poverty.  Farrell's Mulligan is caught between a young man's idealistic vision and his family's darker, dirtier political reality.  A genius, single camera shot from the hood of his car shows his path from a campaign stop at a broken down neighborhood to arrive just minutes later at his well-tended, fortress-like mansion.  Manning, the challenger, has noble intentions, too, but is already mired in tar, too, from shocking displays from his cousin to a humorous yet depressingly cynical negotiation with a local pastor.  The heist is almost an escape from this all too-realistic, everyday war, and does not take its time in showy, extravagant sets.  Rather, it bursts from the darkness, moving with deliberate speed and quickly on to an inevitable yet well-deserved conclusion.

***

Widows is a great film, one of those that so well straddles the line between artistic, Oscar-awards style and good Hollywood entertainment.  Comparisons with Ocean's Eight, the other heist movie this year featuring a female ensemble, are natural, but fortunately they are so different that each stands by itself.  Ocean's Eight is more typical Hollywood, quite a bit funnier and showier, while Widows is more serious, focused on the characters and background rather than the action of the heist. They do both move along with a good pace, while still allowing the actors plenty of time to shine outside the action.  Hopefully more films like Widows are coming, both entertaining and well-made artistic pieces, as the season of Oscar-hyped movies arrives.  As you begin the holidays, try to get out to see this movie - and if you can't, at least check it out on Netflix.




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Overlord

Score:  B+

Directed by Julius Avery
Starring Jovan Adepo, Wyatt Russell, Mathilde Ollivier, and Pilou Asbaek
Running time: 110 minutes
Rated R

Long Story Short:  Overlord brings the gritty, realistic war drama of recent classics into contact with a taste of Hollywood horror, and it works.  A cast of unknowns, mostly playing WWII soldiers, does well and helps set a believable war-time scenario well before anything goes bump in the night.  When it finally does, it's effectively creepy, but overall fairly restrained in the horror department.  Recommended for genre fans, or even those just looking for a well-made action film.


As the sun sets on the day before D-Day, a squad of paratroopers sits nervously in their plane crossing over the English Channel, on the way to a mission behind enemy lines.  Nazi air defenses throw the final approach into chaos, though Private Boyce (Adepo) and a few others manage to land safely in the night.  A small group of survivors find their way to a nearby French town close to their objective: a Nazi radio tower.  A young French woman, Chloe (Ollivier), gives them shelter, and Boyce and others scout the location.  He finds more than just the Nazi military installation, though; beneath a church, bizarre and disturbing experiments lurk.  Short on time, with the D-Day invasion just hours away, the team is forced to reconsider their priorities as they realize the world-changing threat emanating from this small, quiet French village.

Overlord's cast is filled with little-known faces, but the ensemble does impressive work in bringing this historical fantasy to life.  Jovan Adepo plays the primary character, Private Boyce, following him from the chaos of the paratroop landing to the hell that awaits him and his team in France.  Following on a small but nice role in Fences, Adepo is understated but rock solid here as a GI at first frightened and overwhelmed, but who finds his footing as both the personal and broader stakes develop.  This courage under fire is about as deep as the development goes for him, but he makes it convincing, and makes for a very rootable hero to boot.  Wyatt Russell also does quite well as the team's commander.  He plays a rather familiar role as the cold, mission-focused leader, but he does it well, putting his own unique stamp on the part.  Mathilde Ollivier appears at first to be in the damsel-in-distress role as Chloe, but she's also the strikingly strong head of her war-torn household, and believably takes up arms, too, in defending her family.  Pilou Asbaek (GoT's Euron) is more than menacing enough as the main Nazi villain, with a dose of creepiness that helps bridge the war-horror film divide.  In smaller roles as soldiers, Iain de Caestecker gets a brief showcase, and John Magaro helps sell the war setting by looking like he was born to play a soldier (and, in fact, has several other similar credits).

Overlord is a relatively restrained film, considering its war-horror genre combination, and it's very solidly made, even though it doesn't ultimately leave a big impression.  The film is really more accurately described a war movie, with elements of horror and fantasy.  If you've seen productions like Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers, you'll be familiar with the overall structure - and, at least for me, also impressed by the level of historical accuracy and realistic filming.  The filmmakers could have lazily used a generic war setting on which to lay their very non-historical fantasy elements, but I appreciated the detail and specificity, and it served to ground the story effectively.  It also helps that there are no star actors involved, allowing you to focus better on the characters (themselves, nobodies) as presented, yet the cast is still perfectly strong as previously mentioned.  Really, just about all major elements of the film are rock solid; the script is good (a minimum of genre cliches) and the pacing is steady, allowing just enough space to consider its mysteries.  The action is well done; most of it, especially the drop over Normandy, depicting the brutality of war without gratuitous gore.  There is at least as much quiet tension as actual shooting, reflecting the practical needs of the soldiers' mission, providing a good contrast in the types of suspense.

When the horror and fantasy elements finally show up - quite a ways into the film - they take full advantage of it while maintaining the overall integrity of the tone.  There are only glimpses and ghoulish groans in the night at first, existing within the war setting.  But while a soldier's abrupt transformation is shocking, the horror elements stay just as creepy as they come out more into the open.  The finale starts to shift the film into more of a Hollywood actioner (though a secondary line definitely keeps the war footing), but it results in a satisfying conclusion.  Still, some things hold it back from being a (multi)genre classic.  The characters are good but not really memorable.  The historical realism is good, too, but blunts the impact at times, even of the intense air drop scene, because we've seen variations of it before.  And there's no real defining moment or scene to bring it all together and/or showcase.  It's content to run a tight ship throughout, and that's alright.

***

Overlord is a quality action/genre film, but certainly not the one I was expecting.  The biggest temptation, it would seem to me, would be to amplify yet also simplify war movie cliches, then bring in that most timeless of Hollywood villains, the Nazi (literal) monsters to slay as the ultimate evil.  So, first and foremost, kudos to the filmmakers for going in pretty much the opposite direction (even if the climax gives in to it a little).  The film does right by war predecessors like SPR, and its essentially no-name cast does a great job bringing both genre elements to life.  Only time will tell, but I don't think it will necessarily stand out as a cult classic.  Still, if you want to see an enjoyable, well-done action film, this is a good choice for a night at the movies - or later on, as a change-up option on Netflix.




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Bohemian Rhapsody

Score:  B-

Directed by Bryan Singer
Starring Rami Malek, Lucy Boynton, Gwilym Lee, Ben Hardy, Joseph Mazzello
Running time: 134 minutes
Rated PG-13

Long Story Short:  Bohemian Rhapsody is a biopic of Queen, the famous rock band and its one-of-a-kind star, Freddie Mercury.  Rami Malek does an outstanding job in the lead role, and the music helps the film ride along perfectly smoothly.  But it is also overwhelmingly cliche, with a script that mostly hampers any attempts the film makes to show the band's true background.  If all you want is pure entertainment, it's just fine, but otherwise, hold off on this.


In 1970, a young British immigrant named Farrokh (Malek) decides to chase his dreams, joining a band named Smile that just lost its lead singer.  The band, renaming itself Queen, struggles along the countryside doing gigs, but gets its big break when manager John Reid (Gillen) discovers them and they sign a contract with the record label empire EMI.  Thus begins a whirlwind decade for Queen, building a strong reputation as performers but also stretching themselves musically even when it puts them in conflict with their business associates trying to maintain the status quo.  The pressures of fame and fortune, along with Farrokh's - now Freddie Mercury - private struggles, eventually begin to pull the band apart.  But a once-in-a-generation event offers the band an opportunity to cast off the mounting wounds and resentments and come together again.

Bohemian Rhapsody boasts a pleasant cast, ranging from a standout lead performance to heavily cliched parts.  Rami Malek stars as Queen's lead singer, Freddie Mercury, and the intensity and commitment of his performance raises the whole film significantly.  Malek bursts with frenzied energy in concert scenes, and is just as focused and passionate in quieter scenes in which only his protuberant eyes show the conflict, hurt, or love he is feeling.  While his development is somewhat simplified and dulled by the script, Malek keeps his superstar character very much the charismatic, intriguing lead he needs to be throughout.  Lucy Boynton plays Mercury's wife, Mary Austin, and does pretty well with what she's given: plenty of stereotypical rockstar-girlfriend stuff, but she takes advantage of the more interesting anger-to-acceptance-to-warmth transition later on.  Allen Leech, as Mercury's personal manager turned lover, Paul, goes too far into villainous territory, suckered in by the script's many minefields.  The rest of the Queen band does a very solid, understated job, showing genuine, warm camaraderie (though the conflicts often feel contrived).  There are plenty of other small parts, notably Aidan Gillen (Game of Thrones) as Queen's slick manager, and particularly Mike Myers as a comedically idiotic EMI executive.

Bohemian Rhapsody is an entertaining biopic driven by a star performance that goes down smooth - but at the same time, it's too smooth, an artificial and cliched journey of just another rock band.  Even if you know nothing about Queen beyond their music before you see the film (like me), you'll know pretty much how this goes.  Working class kid decides to leap into the world of rock that he's admired from afar, gets a girlfriend as he becomes cool in his ragtag new outfit, surges to stardom on a big break, then deals with intra-band turmoil before rediscovering the magic by the end.  Admittedly, even when you see it coming, much of this is still fun or at least diverting, particularly when driven by some nice acting and a (mostly) up-tempo pacing.  The filmmakers also wisely throw in plenty of musical scenes - not only serving as interludes between plot sections, but of course, splurging on why we're interested in Freddie and Queen in the first place.  My favorite section of the film is when it effectively combines the music with the obligatory plot points, in the recording of their masterpiece titular song in seclusion, just the band enjoying themselves and producing great humor along with the tunes.  However, the script is criminally cliched throughout the film, leading not just to the ruin of a number of scenes' sincerity and believability, but ultimately betraying the band itself through the loss of whatever unique spirit they surely had.  Nearly every scene is constructed according to what the audience expects to see rather than what it needed to show (if it was needed at all), and the dialogue is at times so bad that even Malek can't bring himself to convey it convincingly.  It is only in the music, then, that the film seems to capture what Queen really was, and beyond that, the audience is left to blindly speculate just how much of the rest of the story gets to the truth.

***

Bohemian Rhapsody, while offering some pleasing elements, ultimately serves as a disappointment in the effort as a rock band biopic.  Although I haven't read any individual reviews, its 61% score on Rotten Tomatoes would seem to reflect this.  Truly, if all you're looking for is a familiar, undemanding story with a great lead performance and music, then this is a perfectly good choice, and  a pretty entertaining one.  But if you're looking for a great film, and/or as a Queen fan, looking for a complex, nuanced take on your favorite band, then this will leave you wanting.  I know very little about their history, but have been told that the film deviates in a number of crucial ways from reality, a reality apparently not convenient to the flow the filmmakers wanted.  You're not going to find anything else like it in theaters so give it a try if it's what you're in the mood for - otherwise, I suggest waiting for Netflix, if at all.



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The Old Man & the Gun

Score:  A-

Directed by David Lowery
Starring Robert Redford, Sissy Spacek, Casey Affleck
Running time: 93 minutes
Rated PG-13

Long Story Short:  Robert Redford steps in front of the camera one last time in this crime adventure, co-starring Sissy Spacek and Casey Affleck.  The actors are all great, of course, and the premise is more than a little nod to Redford's career.  But the filmmakers get the chance to present a fully developed - and balanced - story here, both the highs and the lows, and that makes it a worthy tribute.  Highly recommended.


Forrest Tucker (Redford), a genial older man, enters a bank in the early 1980s, and calmly walks back out with quite a bit of money that isn't his.  As he listens via an earpiece to the police frantically but belatedly spring into action, he begins to cruise out of town when he notices a woman broken down by the side of the road.  Forrest then takes Jewel (Spacek) to a local diner, and they find themselves mutually charmed.  Forrest continues seeing her, while also "touring" a number of other states to visit their banks.  Detective John Hunt (Affleck) senses something deeper going on than just an average bank robbery in his town.  He begins to discover the trail of robberies by an unassuming - even gentlemanly - criminal, and takes it on as a personal challenge.  Still, as determined as Hunt is to catch him, Forrest's largest obstacle to freedom may be his own past.

The Old Man & the Gun has a small cast, choosing to focus intently on its legendary leading man.  Robert Redford has said this will be the final role in his long and celebrated acting career, and the role itself is a salute to his previous work.  He clearly relishes this final opportunity to play a roguishly charming outlaw, someone who seems so genuinely nice and decent that it's no surprise that the various bank employees can't help but give him their money.  The camera lingers on Redford throughout the film, almost asking the audience to see in his lined but defiant face the earlier days and journeys that brought this actor/character to his final adventure.  Sissy Spacek does a great job as well, as his romantic interest, Jewel.  Her role - and performance - is essential in holding the film back from flying off into sentimental hero worship.  While the veteran actors have an easy rapport and banter in a realistic, almost improvised manner, their characters are also different enough that there remains an invisible yet distinct barrier between them, too.  In the third significant role, Casey Affleck also does fine work as the detective on the case.  The film wisely does not spend too much time on him, but does give him enough to show the complexity of his work-home life, and his awakening from a professional stupor.  Not flashy, intense, or even portrayed as the "good guy", he brings more groundedness via the law-and-order inevitability he represents.

The Old Man & the Gun succeeds as both a restrained yet fun crime comedy as well as a touching and well-executed send off for one of Hollywood's most famous actors of all time.  Based loosely on a true story, the film wisely does not really focus too much on the ostensible main action, the brazen robberies of banks by an old man (and his two equally-elderly conspirators).  We do get to see several of the crimes, which are really pretty simple and emphasize the irresistible charm that Redford commands, and the transition of the hapless managers and tellers from customer service to incredulity as reality dawns on them.  However, it's the moments around these crimes that get more emphasis.  Forrest's burgeoning relationship with Jewel is the center of this, as you watch him debate whether he can continue this while carrying on as usual, or whether this is his opportunity to finally get out of the "game".  While this all lends a fun, Hollywood-fantasy aspect to the film, it is smartly countered with the grim elements of reality, too.  Detective Hunt's investigation, while amusing at times as the "victims" are interrogated, shows the steady march to justice.  And it becomes more and more clear, to Forrest and the audience, that he really can't have it both ways.  Trying to do so gets people hurt, Forrest himself included, and even his aura of invincibility and pleasantness drops at times.  It is this balanced approach that makes the film a worthy capstone to Redford's career.  If there were no challenges, or Forrest forever escaped the law, it would be a superficial and insincere ending for him. But the film waits until near the end, wisely, to explore Forrest's life of crime - and incarceration - using (subtle) snapshots from previous moment's in Redford's career to illustrate the journey in a way possible only for this film and this actor.

***

The Old Man & the Gun has a premise that almost screams for awards attention - but its success not only validates that attention, it shows a triumph of walking a sneakily perilous tight rope.  Redford could easily, I'm sure, have taken complete control of this film, and used it to glorify himself, results on the film itself be damned.  But I get the strong impression that he stepped back and allowed the filmmakers to create and enact their own overall vision for the film - which, of course, included a certain honoring of the actor himself, but which came about more naturally this way.  This allowed also for other real characters to develop around him - Spacek and Affleck's characters, specifically, are no mere stereotyped stand-ins.  Finally, it all wraps up in a tidy 90 minutes or so, not overstaying its welcome.  Highly recommended, particularly of course for Redford fans.



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