In the meantime, here's a look at some of the other stuff I've been watching. Enjoy! 😉
Bombshell
Earlier this year, I watched the Showtime miniseries The Loudest Voice, a detailed account of the rise and fall of Fox News CEO Roger Ailes, who was accused of multiple accounts of sexual misconduct and harassment, ultimately leading to his dismissal- albeit with a hefty payout. Along with fellow Fox news reporter Bill O'Reilly, the case was one of the first big ones in what became known as the #metoo and Time's Up movements.
Those movements led to the downfall of many powerful men in the entertainment industry, notably producer Harvey Weinstein, talk show hosts Matt Lauer and Charlie Rose, and actors like Kevin Spacey, and most recently, Danny Masterson, of That 70's Show fame. They continue to reverberate throughout the entertainment industry, and have even trickled down into the lives of others in the "real" world, as the tolerance for such things has grinded to a halt.
Some- typically men- say that the movements have gone too far, with some relative innocents impacted by the situation- i.e. Chris Hardwick and Aziz Ansari, whose cases perhaps don't quite rise to the level of others- but overall, these developments have been a good thing. Hollywood, in particular, and America in general, did, in fact, need a wake-up call about some of their outdated behaviors, which should no longer be tolerated, even if there were some bumps in the road. Those mishaps don't make the ones who actually did reprehensible things any less guilty.
Bombshell is basically a more streamlined version of The Loudest Voice, only here the focus is, perhaps as it should be, on the women involved. Unlike the latter, this one also takes more liberties with the material, with one character- Margot Robbie's Kayla- made up, albeit based on the experiences of various women that were harrassed by Ailes, which were then combined into a so-called "composite character."
Still, as evidenced by the wrenching panel assembled by former Fox host Megyn Kelly- which you can see here- it comes pretty close to the mark overall. Kelly's main complaint seems to be that she, along with everyone else involved in the panel, including her husband, weren't consulted personally. Although, to be fair to the filmmakers, it was pretty common knowledge that Fox made a lot of people sign NDAs after they left the network, so they may have thought that Kelly and the rest couldn't talk.
Also, it's implied that Kelly told big boss Rupert Murdoch the questions she was going to ask Trump at one of the debates ahead of time, and he gave Trump the heads-up; as well as a scene late in the film where her "character" is berated by Robbie's for not speaking up sooner, although she allows that there's some truth to that and that she should have. The filmmakers would probably chalk these things up to "creative license" or the like, but I can see where Kelly would rightfully be upset by these implications.
Kelly and her cohorts' main complaint, though, is that the film lets Ailes off "too easy"- much like Fox themselves. She's not wrong, as Voice paints a much more damning picture of the vile Ailes that is often hard to watch. Not that Ailes isn't a pretty repulsive figure in both films, but his presence is decidedly more diminished in Bombshell- albeit, as I said, to focus more on the women. It's a calculated risk that does pay off in many ways, but also causes the film to come up short in others.
However, that's not to say that Bombshell isn't worth a look for the strength of the performances at hand, notably Charlize Theron, near-unrecognizable as herself as Kelly- the resemblance really is astonishing, so much so that even one of Kelly's kids was fooled by the poster into thinking it was, in fact, his mother.
Ditto John Lithgow, who is even more so unrecognizable as the vile Ailes, courtesy of Oscar-winning makeup from Kazuhiro Tsuji, the same man who transformed Gary Oldman into Winston Churchill in The Darkest Hour. Robbie is also very endearing, in a key role, that shows how an otherwise good person can be duped and taken advantage of in a toxic environment, in hopes of furthering their career.
Indeed, the overall ensemble is first-rate, including Nicole Kidman, continuing her winning streak as of late, with a turn as Gretchen Carlson, the woman scorned who set the wheels in motion to bring down Ailes in the first place; Allison Janney as Ailes' attorney; Connie Britton as Ailes' enabling wife, who refuses to believe the worst; Kate McKinnon as Kayla's co-worker, an in-the-closet lesbian hiding in plain sight at Fox; Malcolm McDowell as Rupert Murdoch; and Holland Taylor as Ailes' enabling secretary, who often played a part in recruiting and covering up his actions.
There's also a host of celebrity cameos as Fox personalities and the like that I'll let you discover for yourself, making for a pretty winning ensemble that easily outdoes the Voice cast. However, where the film falls short is in the script. While Charles Randolph, best-known for co-writing the Oscar-winning screenplay for The Big Short, does a great job of streamlining things overall, he also does so at the peril of the material at hand, glossing over what the Voice takes its time with.
It's not a bad movie, by any means, but- and I never thought I'd say I agreed with Kelly on much of anything, for the record- as Kelly says, the movie lets Ailes off too easy. It also blares through so many of the women affected that one barely registers how horrific it must have been for them to be in their respective positions. Watching Kelly's interviews with the actual victims is grueling stuff- here, only Robbie's experiences land hard, and she's a (mostly) made-up character.
Compare and contrast that with Annabelle Wallis' wrenching performance in a similar role (as seen above), only this time based on a real person, Laurie Luhn, and, well, there's no comparison, really, and I say that as a huge Robbie fan. She's fine, but Wallis' similar character is way more fleshed out, and what happens to her is flat-out hard to watch: I even had to turn away at certain times. I gather that Luhn demanded and even sued to make sure that her portrayal was accurate, and the end result speaks for itself- no one should ever have to go through what she did, ever.
My main problem with Bombshell is that, all too often, much like Vice, the film about Dick Cheney, the film seems to pat itself on the back for a job well-done. I think it's that self-congratulatory tone and self-aggrandizing way of telling the story that rubbed Kelly the wrong way, and it may have the same effect on some viewers as well, especially those who have been through similar things.
To put it another way, it's rich for Hollywood to be so high and mighty when some of the worst predators ever were enabled by them. Maybe not the ones who made this movie, mind you- who I do think have their hearts in the right place- but let's just hold off on all the high fives for the moment and not get ahead of ourselves, shall we?
Don't get me wrong- it's a powerful story that deserves to be told. I'd just stick with The Loudest Voice if you can. It's a bigger investment of time, but it's also much more well-rounded and thoughtful. Bombshell is the fast food version of the events, while Voice is the full-course meal, in other words. Bombshell has good intentions, but you know what they say about good intentions...
Check it out, if you're a fan of the cast, but know that there's a better option available, if you can get a hold of it.
Motherless Brooklyn
I'm a big Edward Norton fan, and I was excited to hear that he would be making his long-awaited follow-up to his directorial debut, 2000's Keeping the Faith (which was decent but not as good as it could have been), with the much-more intriguing-sounding Motherless Brooklyn, based on the novel of the same name by Jonathan Lethem, which I admittedly haven't read. It's basically a Film Noir set in the late 50's in- where else? - New York City.
From what I can gather, the movie takes quite a few liberties with the book- what a shocker! Anyway, the biggest is that aforementioned time change: the book is set in modern times, but Norton thought it would be more interesting to set it in the past. What's more, he grafted elements of another book (!) into the proceedings, Robert Caro's The Power Broker.
Obviously, this isn't going to go over well with fans of the former book, but fans of Norton are in for a treat, as it's easily his showiest role in ages, maybe even since the first film I remember seeing him in, Primal Fear. As with that film, his character has a laundry list of tics and quirks, notably a form of Tourette's Syndrome, which causes him to blurt out crazy things unintentionally, which, as one might guess, occasionally gets him into trouble, especially in the 50's.
The cast is nothing short of phenomenal, including Bruce Willis as the boss and mentor of Norton's character, Lionel; Alec Baldwin, firmly in Glengarry Glen Ross mode, as Moses, the character inspired by Robert Moses, the subject of The Power Broker; Willem Dafoe as Paul, Moses' neglected and angry brother, seemingly on a crusade to take Moses down; Bobby Cannavale (The Irishman, Mr. Robot), Ethan Suplee (Mallrats, My Name is Earl) and Dallas Roberts (The Walking Dead, The Good Wife) as Lionel's co-workers at Willis' character's detective agency; Gugu Mbatha-Raw (Doctor Who, Black Mirror) as Laura, who works at the Urban Renewal department and has a key role in the case at hand; Michael K. Williams (The Wire, Boardwalk Empire) as a jazz trumpeter who takes a shine to Lionel; and Leslie Mann as Willis' character's wife.
The main story is Lionel's investigation into a case that affects him and all of the detectives at the agency, which I won't spoil here, but which directly involves Baldwin's corrupt character, among others. One thing I liked about it the most was that, while it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what exactly was going on, the way things played out wasn't necessarily how one would expect. Lionel is just smart enough to play the odds, and while it gets his ass kicked here and there, overall, he does achieve his goals of solving the case and salvaging what he wants out of it, even if certain people involved get away with more than others.
While the film is way longer than it needed to be at nearly two and a half hours, it is nonetheless pretty engrossing, and if you, too, love a good Film Noir, you'll likely dig it as much as I did, even if it could have stood for some more judicious editing. The acting is great across the board- duh- and the jazzy score by Daniel Pemberton is perfect for a film of this type. I particularly liked Raw and Williams' characters, and, of course, Norton is perfection, as he blurts out oft-amusing things throughout the film.
The film's most obvious influence is clearly Polanski's classic neo-noir Chinatown, only filtered through a more New York sensibility. From what I gather, the film takes a lot of liberties with the book, even more so than usual in Hollywood, so if you're a fan of it, you might want to skip the movie, but I hadn't read it, so I was unaffected by such preconceived notions. Overall, I really dug the film.
Oh, and heads up, Radiohead and Red Hot Chili Peppers fans- there's an original song by the former band's Thom Yorke in the film, featuring Flea on bass and horns. The song is also reprised in jazz form in the film by none other than legend Wynton Marsalis, accompanied by several other jazz legends. You can get both versions via streaming, and of course, listen to them via YouTube here.
If you like Film Noir, you'll probably like this. Even if you don't, if you're a fan of any of the actors I mentioned, especially Norton himself, it's a must see. Yes, it's overlong, but I still enjoyed it overall, and I can't say I was ever bored, per se. It might well have made my Best Of 2019 list, had I seen it sooner, and the themes involved are certainly timely, even if it is set back in the 50's. The more things change, the more they stay the same. I say check it out, absolutely.
The King of Staten Island
Like a lot of people, I was among those who was a bit dubious of the talents of Saturday Night Live star Pete Davidson. I didn't really get his humor at first, and I certainly didn't get his sex appeal, as he landed one hottie after another, notably Ariana Grande (who he almost married and who famously wrote a song about him) and Kate Beckinsale. Though I didn't join in on the online piling on, I certainly made my share of jokes about him IRL with friends, turning myself into a Mean Girl type in the process.
Well, it turns out that Davidson is not without some talent after all, and his back-story is actually pretty heart-wrenching. When he was just a child, his father, a firefighter, died in the 9/11 attacks in the line of duty. Since then, doctors have had him on a wide variety of meds- due in part to a case of Crohn's Disease, but also for depression- and he also picked up a drug problem on his own, albeit mostly smoking weed, rather than doing hard drugs. In reality, it was comedy that saved his life when things got really dark and he often contemplated suicide and did questionable, dangerous things.
Knowing all that is crucial going into the semi-autobiographical dramatic comedy The King of Staten Island, which Davidson co-wrote, along with director Judd Apatow and Dave Sirus (also a writer for SNL). A lot of what happens in the movie is based on real events, and while it's easy to write off Davidson as a loser if you don't know that, it makes his experiences a hell of a lot more relatable and sympathetic if you do.
As with all Apatow movies, this thing is a good twenty to thirty minutes longer than it needs to be, but if you can get past that, it's actually a really solid slice of life picture with strong performances from Marisa Tomei (as Davidson's character Scott's mom), stand-up comedian Bill Burr (as Scott's mother's love interest, also a firefighter, much to Davidson's chagrin) and especially Brit Bel Powley (The Morning Show) doing a pitch perfect New York accent as Scott's on again/off again GF.
There's also some great character actor bits from Steve Buscemi (as a firefighter that knew Scott's dad- Buscemi himself was a former firefighter and helped out during 9/11 IRL), rapper/chef Action Bronson (The Irishman), Pamela Adlon (Better Things) and Apatow's daughter Maude (Hollywood, Euphoria) also crops up as Scott's much-beloved "normal" sister. That's a pretty strong ensemble right there.
Davidson himself is genuinely good, and even if he's basically playing himself, he's still able to adeptly communicate the pain his character is feeling, as well as allowing for some dopier- emphasis on the "dope" part- but really funny moments. Even then, the silliness occasionally gives way to some serious pathos, such as when his deadbeat friends get him to help them rob a pharmacy store or when he gets physical with his mother's new BF, who he's not exactly approving of- or vice versa, for that matter.
While, as I said, it's way overlong, that's not really Davidson's fault, and there's a legitimately good movie in here, especially once Apatow finds the proper tone after a somewhat meandering first hour. Had Apatow not indulged in some of his worst tendencies, this might well have ended up his best film to date. Let's face it, some things are better off on the cutting room floor, to be used as outtakes and deleted scenes for the DVD/Blu-Ray.
Kevin Smith, Apatow's most obvious predecessor, got that, which is why his DVDs were jam-packed with content back in the day, but his movies were of a more reasonable length. Maybe one day Apatow will actually get that and make his own masterpiece. Until then, this is still one of his best, even with all the excess material, and serves as a nice love letter both to Staten Island and firefighters alike.
As for Davidson, I don't know if he'll be able to harness this material again for a similarly successful follow-up, but I'm certainly hoping he is able to get it together enough to do something special again, as it would be sad for him to fall back into bad habits, just as his character does, time and again. I think his instincts are good, but we'll see. In the meantime, I say check this one out, but know that it's a bit slow-moving at times, especially early on in the film.
The Addams Family
Our final movie is essentially a reboot of the old Addams Family cartoons by artist Charles Addams, which, of course, inspired both the classic TV show from the mid-60's and the much-loved 90's films. Here, the idea is to take things back to their darker origins, the comics, albeit with a slightly more modern edge, mostly in terms of the Reality TV-inspired subplot involving Allison Janney's character, but I didn't mind the juxtaposition overall.
In a revelation that I'm sure will surprise exactly no one, the film was originally intended to be produced by, you guessed it, Tim Burton, using the same stop-motion animation style as his The Nightmare Before Christmas and The Corpse Bride. While I don't doubt that the end results probably would have been that much closer to the original comics' tone than this is; nonetheless, it's probably for the best, as it would have likely seemed like Burton was falling back on old tropes of his previous work.
Taking over are directors Conrad Vernon (of Shrek and Sausage Party fame) and Greg Tiernan (who also co-directed Party), working from a script by Matt Lieberman, who wrote the well-received The Christmas Chronicles and the recent Scoob! animated film, a reboot of the classic animated series, Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? I haven't seen that one yet, but if it has the healthy respect this one does for its predecessors, then it should be pretty enjoyable.
The story revolves around the famed creepy, kooky family relocating to an isolated locale after the locals drum them out of town under suspicion of being witches or practitioners of the occult or what have you. Moving into an abandoned asylum on a hill in... wait for it... New Jersey (where cartoonist Addams is actually from), the family lives in relative peace for about 13 years when newcomers move into the planned community town down below, spearheaded by reality TV host Margaux Needler (Janney), who plans to film everyone and everything for her latest extreme makeover show, "Assimilation"- and not necessarily with everyone's permission, mind you.
Obviously, the Addams don't fit in with her vision for the town, so she immediately begins plans to either make them and their house over, or drive them out of town altogether, failing that. To do so, she starts rumors online and aggressively tries to turn everyone in town against the poor Addams Family. Needless to say, they don't take it lying down, though, it takes a lot to get them there, as they mostly just want to be left alone and fit in with everybody, albeit in their own way.
The film is perfectly cast, with Oscar Isaac as Gomez, Charlize Theron as Morticia, Chloë Grace Moretz as Wednesday and Finn Wolfhard as Pugsley, with an assist from Nick Kroll as Uncle Fester, Bette Midler as Grandmama Addams, Martin Short as Grandpa and Catherine O'Hara as Grandma, Morticia's parents; and Snoop Dogg as Cousin ITT.
I'm sure I don't need to remind genre fans of the significance of some of this casting, but for those who are among the uninitiated, Moretz is a recurring Scream Queen in films like The Amityville Horror, Carrie, Let Me In and Dark Shadows; Wolfhard is a vet of Stranger Things; Midler was in the Disney classic Hocus Pocus; O'Hara was in Beetlejuice and even Snoop was in the underrated Bones.
Isaac and Theron don't have as much horror genre experience, though Isaac was in the horror-adjacent Ex Machina and Theron won an Oscar for portraying serial killer Aileen Wuornos in Monster, which co-starred former Wednesday, Christina Ricci. However, they feel just right in their roles as Gomez and Morticia, so I certainly have no objections to the casting, being a fan of both actors.
All concerned positively nail it, especially Moretz, who strikes the perfect deadpan tone as Wednesday 2.0, even managing to give her a sly rebellious streak, which is hard to do when your whole life is a rebellion. My favorite line in the movie happens when Wednesday, acting out, decides to reboot her wardrobe, leading Morticia to lament "Pink is a gateway color," lol. Love it, and Moretz in general. 😍
The whole Reality TV thing is somewhat unfortunate at first blush, but I came around on it after I saw the point: sometimes the real monsters are the ones who pretend to be the most civilized and who "just want to help." Some people don't need any help being who they are, thank you very much. The Addams Family are certainly among them, and they emerge completely unscathed, thankfully, in terms of their portrayal here.
I also liked all the horror in-jokes, including a literal Amityville shout-out, and references to IT, Poltergeist, Sleepy Hollow, Frankenstein, Young Frankenstein, Invasion of the Body Snatchers and the non-horror-related Watchmen, Monty Python and the Holy Grail and, um, Titanic. Some of the creepy sight gags, like Wednesday's noose braids and Thing's antics, are also very cool. I like that they kept things macabre and didn't really soften them for younger viewers, though none of it is really extreme. That said, Wednesday does bury her brother alive- don't get any ideas, kids!
All in all, it was a fun ride. I didn't expect much, and didn't really get anything spectacular, but at well under ninety minutes, it doesn't overstay its welcome, I laughed a few times, and overall, really enjoyed it. I think horror fans who don't mind a little light humor in their lives will, too. Hey, it certainly beats those Hotel Transylvania movies.
Viewers must have agreed, as it grossed a whopping $203 million at the box office on a mere $24 million budget. A sequel is already in development, with the same team intact. I'm actually looking forward to it, especially if it pushes things even closer to the comics, which was the main criticism directed at the film. They got the look and dark humor right, for sure, but next time, a more worthy story should take them in an even better direction. We'll see.
Well, that about does it for this round of reviews, but I'll be back soon enough with some new ones, as I watch more movies, likely with an emphasis on horror and sci-fi next time around- I've got Zombieland 2, The Grudge reboot, Underwater and Doctor Sleep on order, so count on those four being part of the mix next time around.
Until then, it's back to Cronenberg, as well as the latest Into the Dark. As soon as it comes out next Friday, look for a review of it and last season's Independence Day-themed episodes ASAP. See you then! 😉
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