March 2018

Highlights in March included seeing my goddaughter Jenna perform in a high-school performance of the musical The Drowsy Chaperone, and seeing the musical Allegiance with Joan. In addition to having problems with two molars, a crown on an implant came loose, and I spent time dealing with that problem. Meanwhile, after a long wait, I finally got the battery in my iPhone 6+ replaced. Otherwise, the month was largely uneventful. MUSIC: I spent time listening to the songs of Eddie Baird and Co-Pilgrim. BOOKS: I’ve been enjoying short stories of W. Somerset Maugham.

Here are the movies I saw in March:

ANNIHILATION (2018)—Director Alex Garland, whose film Ex Machina was one of the best films of 2015, returns with another sci-fi horror movie, this time adapting the first book in Jeff VanderMeer’s Southern Reach trilogy. The story involves some commandos infiltrating an gradually expanding alien presence on earth known as The Shimmer, where people go in, but they don’t come out. Natalie Portman and a team of other female scientist-soldiers go into the time- and mind-bending zone (called Area X in the book) to figure out what is going on. Inside, both animals and plants seems to be merging their DNA, creating new life forms. It is occasionally heady and trippy in a 2001: A Space Odyssey way, where questions pile up much faster than answers, but it’s all mildly engrossing. (8)

FILM STARS DON’T DIE IN LIVERPOOL (2017)—This free screening at Paramount stars Annette Bening as American actress Gloria Graham (star of two of my favorite movies, It’s a Wonderful Life and Oklahoma!) in her twilight years, when she was suffering from breast cancer. In this true story, she meets up with a much younger British man and has an affair with him, with the usual age-difference consequences; Graham is vain and loath to combat her disease for fear of losing work, and the young man can’t really connect with her on her level. I found the movie to be mostly a slog, while Joan enjoyed it. (6)

OSCAR-NOMINATED ANIMATED SHORT FILMS (2018)—Five short animated films were nominated for an Oscar this year; in addition to those five, an extra three (not nominated) are tacked on to pad out a feature showing to beyond an hour. As with previous years, they were all presented at a local cinema for screening, although not many people showed up. All of the films nominated were outstanding: Dear Basketball (featuring basketball legend Kobe Bryant), the winning film, is a touching love letter to his sport; Negative Space is a moving portrait of a boy reminiscing about his father teaching him how to pack a suitcase; Lou is a heartwarming Pixar short in a Toy Story vein; Revolting Rhymes is an engrossing adaptation of a Roald Dahl book; and Garden Party is a curious frog-centric tale of an abandoned mansion. Of the ones that were not nominated, Lost Property Office was the best, about a guy working at a train station’s lost and found office. It’s hard to say which one of these I liked best, as they were all good, but Dear Basketball was certainly not the best. Revolting Rhymes was Part 1 of a two-parter; I rushed to download Part 2 as soon as I got home. (10)

OSCAR-NOMINATED LIVE-ACTION SHORT FILMS (2018)—Five short live-action films were also nominated for an Oscar this year. DeKalb Elementary, a fact-based story about a would-be school shooter, is a real nail biter, and mostly a two-hander, as an armed teenager is “talked off the ledge” by a brave office worker (astonishingly good Tarra Riggs). The Silent Child, the winning film, involves a mostly deaf child whose parents initially hire an experienced and loving young woman to work with her, but who develop doubts about her receiving training in sign language; it’s extremely moving. The Eleven O’Clock is an amusing comedy sketch about a psychiatrist whose 11:00 appointment is with a man who thinks he’s a psychiatrist. Watu Wote: All of Us, another real-life story, is about a busload of Muslim and Christian passengers who are confronted by a deadly band of terrorists, and how they survive their ordeal. Finally, My Nephew Emmett (yet another true story) is about a violent racial confrontation in Mississippi during the mid-1950s. All of the movies were very well done, and have inspired me to seek out short movies from previous years. (10)

THOROUGHBREDS (2018)—Black comedy involving two high-school friends: a sociopath (Olivia Cooke) and a psychopath (Anya Taylor-Joy). Together, the girls hatch a plot to kill Taylor-Joy’s stepfather, who is unpleasant but hardly worthy of murdering. The plot involves Anton Yelchin (Chekhov in the Star Trek reboot; this was his last film). The poster’s tagline describes it as Heathers meets American Psycho; would that it were that good. At best, the movie is a mild diversion, but it’s often slow and pointless. Both girls are very attractive, however; Cooke is like a young Natalie Portman. (7)

LOVE, SIMON (2018)—Straighter-than-straight Nick Robinson plays Simon, a closeted gay (!) teenager who is blackmailed and eventually outed by a classmate. The extremely “YA” film explores his friendships, his problems and his family relationships. Directed by Greg Berlanti, it’s clearly targeted at teenagers, but the cast is so good that adults can enjoy it as well, especially with actors like Tony Hale (Arrested Development) as the school principal. Quite moving in parts. (9)

ICE PALACE (1960)—Having previously enjoyed movies based on Edna Ferber’s novels (Cimmaron and So Big), here’s the next in the series. This one stars Richard Burton and Robert Ryan as Alaskan fisherman who spar over a woman (Carolyn Jones, who played Morticia on The Addams Family). Like the other Ferber adaptations, it’s a very atmospheric and melodramatic piece about personality conflicts set in a period of American history. Also featuring Jim Backus (Gilligan’s Island) and George Takei (who would go on to do Star Trek). (9)

ISLE OF DOGS (2018)—Director Wes Anderson (The Fantastic Mr. Fox) is back with another animated feature. This one is Japan-centric, about an island of diseased castaway dogs and a young boy searching for his beloved pooch. It is creatively animated, features a wonderful voice cast, and contains some of the most original and imaginative storytelling I’ve seen on film in quite a while. Bryan Cranston, Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Jeff Goldblum, Greta Gerwig, Scarlett Johansson and many others do a great job in the roles of various humans and canines. What a wonderful movie! (10)

I KILL GIANTS (2018)—A misfit girl in middle school displays delusional tendencies and lacks social skills. She fancies herself a killer of giants—even though we are unaware of any actual giants that are threatening her town. She is a girl with some big problems, and we wait until the end of the movie for her psychological issues to be addressed. Meanwhile, she sees a school therapist (Zoe Saldana) and is teased by school bullies. My patience for this main character wore very thin over the course of the movie, and the “big reveal” didn’t exactly make the rest of the film worth sitting through. Based on a popular graphic novel. (6)

UNSANE (2018)—This is the second movie in a row where the female protagonist is suffering from some psychological issue based on a traumatic event from her past. The adult character in this movie inadvertently checks herself into a mental ward and spends the movie trying to escape from it. Filmed using several iPhone 7 cellphones, this psychological thriller is fairly absorbing and suspenseful, if somewhat farfetched. Matt Damon appears for about two minutes. (8)