October 2017

It was a mostly peaceful month. Cindy and I started tutoring again on Halloween. BOOKS: I finished A Stranger in the House by Shari Lapina, the second thriller of hers I’ve read this year (following The Couple Next Door). I was also delighted to discover that a new Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey collection had been published. MUSIC: I have been grading the entire Kinks discography. This was also the month that I discovered the YouNow website, making friends with some of the musicians who perform there. Here are the movies I saw in October:

AMERICAN MADE (2017)—Tom Cruise plays pilot Barry Seal in this biopic about the infamous Nicaraguan Contras drug smuggling cartel in the 1980s. It’s an exciting and informative true-life drama about greed and corruption. Cruise is typically winning and handsome. You’ll learn a lot about the Iran-Contra affair, but it’s always entertaining. (8)

KINGSMAN: THE GOLDEN CIRCLE (2017)—The 2014 action-comedy spy spoof Kingsman: The Secret Service gets a strong sequel. Colin Firth—seemingly killed off in the original—is miraculously resurrected and reunited with co-star Taron Egerton; many cameos (including Elton John), help make this second installment of the franchise great fun. I’m looking forward to the “threequel”! (9)

THE FLORIDA PROJECT (2017)—Director Sean Baker (Tangerine) ups the ante with his follow-up film by working with a somewhat larger budget—but that much larger. Instagram star Bria Vinaite plays a prostitute and mother of a young girl (Brooklynn Prince) who are living in a run-down motel in Orlando; the film follows their day-to-day life in a series of mini vignettes. It doesn’t feature a traditional plot—it’s more of a “slice of life” presentation. The entire cast is first-rate, including Willem Dafoe as the motel manager who has to deal with everything from bedbugs and perverts to late-paying customers and a group of rambunctious kids. (8)

THE MOUNTAIN BETWEEN US (2017)—Charles Martin’s 2011 survival novel has been adapted into an exciting film starring Idris Elba and Kate Winslet as passengers of a small plane that crash-lands into a snowy mountain wilderness and must survive through extremely harsh weather conditions. The movie clicks on virtually every level—at least until the interminable final act. Two points subtracted because of the last 15-20 minutes, which make the film go from great to second rate. (8)

THE MEYEROWITZ STORIES (NEW AND SELECTED) (2017)—A marvelous cast led by Dustin Hoffman, Ben Stiller and Adam Sandler are short-changed in this plodding, overlong family drama that never quite gels. The excellent performances are wasted in director Noah Baumbach’s aimless story of three adult siblings who bicker, and sometimes even come to blows, among themselves while dealing with their aging, eccentric father (Hoffman). There are a few excellent scenes, but the movie just goes nowhere. Piano score by Randy Newman. (5)

MARSHALL (2017)—The early career of civil-rights champion Thurgood Marshall is explored in this courtroom drama that focuses on an early case involving a black man unjustly accused of rape in the 1960s. The movie is above average but rarely exceptional; it’s like a really good TV movie. There are a few amateurish touches, but its heart is in the right place. I’d like to see a movie about how Marshall became the first African-American Supreme Court Justice...or a case where Marshall actually gets to testify (in this particular courtroom case, the racist judge mutes him so he doesn’t really have a lot to do). (8)

SUBURBICON (2017)—Writer-directors Joel and Ethan Coen originally wrote their script for Suburbicon in 1986; George Clooney has championed its production many years later…and has directed a below-average film of it. What a waste of time! The usually reliable Matt Damon stars in this crime drama about murder and the Mafia. About a third of the film involves a barely connected story involving how racism destroys the lives of Damon’s black neighbors. Violent and not very stylish. (5)

WONDERSTRUCK (2017)—Parallel stories track two different deaf children’s cross-country odysseys as they hunt for their respective parents in different timelines. Most of the time, it’s relatively engrossing, but it’s occasionally show, about 20 minutes too long and complicated by lapses of logic. (There was absolutely no reason to make the main kid deaf except to make the movie longer by having too many people write long notes to him.) Curiously, as with Suburbicon, actress Julianne Moore is cast in a dual role. (7)