The Reel World

One of the best films of 2018 was Beautiful Boy. Both Steve Carell and Timothee Chalamet deliver absolutely stellar performances as a father and his addicted son. That story took us on a father's terrifying journey of dealing with his son's addiction and the toll it takes over a series of years. If you compress that experience down to a single frantic night, you get an idea of what you're in store for when you go to see Ben Is Back. It's another heart-wrenching story of the emotional toll that addiction has not only on the addict but the people who love the addict. It's a Christmas story, but it's not the kind of story that involves miracles and Santa. It's about love, but a tough love that only a parent of an addicted child will ever really know. But this film will take you close enough to the experience, perhaps closer than you will feel comfortable being. For most of us this is as close as we'll get...if we're very lucky.

Ben Burns (Hedges) takes a 24-hour leave from his rehab facility. He wants to visit his mother and family for the Christmas holiday. His mother Holly (Roberts) is glad to see her son, but you can tell immediately she has some concerns as she begins to move things around in her house. She's hiding any pills and any valuables that might be easy to convert into drugs. Her son is an addict, and while she attempts to be hopeful about his visit, she is concerned if it's really a good idea for him or the family. She agrees to let him stay for the night and celebrate Christmas. Holly now has a new husband, Neal (Vance), and they have two young children, so it's not to hard to understand her caution. Plus there is Ben's younger sister, Ivy (Newton). For Ben's part we believe that he's sincere, and he really is. He absolutely understands what his habit has cost him and his family, and he's making a concerted effort to change. He's reluctant to go to places like the attic where he used to stash drugs. He understands his own weakness and desperately avoids the things that might trigger his addiction or expose him to the temptation. Those are all good signs, and the family attempts to make the best of it with a bit of uneasy cheer that even they don't really believe.

Aristotle once paraphrased that “Nature abhors a vacuum,” which is the main thing I keep thinking while watching Mortal Engines, another in a long line of books turned movie adaptations. It seems like everyone is trying to fill the hole left behind by Harry Potter and Twilight (love or hate it, you have to admit that it brought in the teeny boppers) franchises. Unfortunately, I do not see this film becoming a worthy successor to the throne. Initially, I was intrigued by the premise: cities mounted on wheels devouring other cities. It had a real Transformers meets Mad Max vibe to it. If only the film lived up to the preview.

The movie is set in a dystopian world, ravaged by an apocalyptic event known as the "Sixty Minute War", which caused massive geological upheaval. To escape the destructions cities have installed huge engines and wheels and been enabled to dismantle (or eat) other cities for resources. This act has become known as "Municipal Darwinism". As a result of the war, much technological and scientific knowledge has been lost. Because scientific progress has almost completely halted, "Old Tech" is highly prized and recovered by scavengers and archaeologists. Europe, some of Asia, North Africa, Antarctica, and the Arctic are dominated by Traction Cities. There is conflict between these cities and a group called the Anti-Traction League, which seeks to keep cities from moving and thus stop the intense consumption of the planet's remaining resources. That should bring those unfamiliar with the series up to speed regarding the film, which is a better intro than I received while watching the movie.

At first glance, Mary Queen of Scots has all the makings of a film you’d expect to be nominated for numerous awards; after all, it’s a period drama that showcases some remarkable performances from Saoirse Ronan and Margot Robbie.  Unfortunately this retelling of the story between Queen Elizabeth (Robbie) and Queen Mary (Ronan) is bogged down with its politics and the struggles these women have being leaders while their differing religions present a conflict preventing them from ever working together.  Let me just jump into this and attempt to sort this film out.

For those who are not history buffs, I won’t disclose who it is that we see in the opening moments of the film as they are being led to their execution.  It’s an odd way to open the film; despite it being historically accurate, it just seems a bit off-putting.  The film then takes us to Mary arriving in Scotland to claim her throne after being away in France.  At the same time Queen Elizabeth has been ruling over England and Scotland, since she hasn’t married and with no children it is Mary who is ready to take on the reins of becoming the heir to the throne of England.  This is the start of many squabbles between the two queens, where we see their relationship dissolve from a unique sisterhood to the pair becoming envious of one another.  Basically how most families are, only without the royal labels.

by Diana Delia

Ralph Breaks the Internet is a sequel to the hit Disney animated film Wreck it Ralph. In Ralph Breaks the Internet, we follow our heroes from the last movie, Ralph and Vanellope, as they travel the internet in search of a broken part for Vanellope’s arcade game. They find the missing steering controller on eBay, and it’s the last one in existence. Up for auction, they give the winning bid for $27,000. They now must find a way to earn the money to pay for the controller with a deadline in five hours, or they will lose Vanellope’s game forever.

"In the ring, you got rules. Outside, you got nothing. Life hits you with all these cheap shots. People like me, we live in the past. You got people that need you now. You got everything to lose; this guy has got nothing to lose."

For the last couple of decades the sport of boxing has lost much of its popularity, at least here in the United States. The big matches used to be events where neighbors and friends would gather and enjoy the spectacle together. It likely started when long-time fighting fan and announcer Howard Cosell distanced himself from the sport, and the collapse appeared finally complete around the time Mike Tyson added ear to his menu. It's devolved so far that I haven't known who the champ is for more than 10 years. Everyone used to know the champ. It didn't matter if you followed the sport. The names used to be household names. No longer. That doesn't appear to be as true with the boxing movie. Films like Rocky and Raging Bull helped to create an entire genre of the boxing movie, and it has survived the real thing. In 2015 Sylvester Stallone partnered with director Ryan Coogler to revitalize the aging Rocky franchise and focus the new films on the son of Rocky's friend and ring-rival Apollo Creed. Together with Michael B Jordan in the new titular role, the franchise saw new light, and Stallone would finally give the performance of his life. Coogler and Jordan went on to join the Marvel Universe and create one of the highest box office takes in history with The Black Panther. Now he's back as Adonis Creed without Coogler in the director's chair. This time Steven Caple, Jr. directs from a story co-written by Stallone, who wrote the original Rocky back in 1976. I'm happy to say there's still some heart left in the old man and his franchise.

"The wizarding and non-wizarding worlds have been at peace for over a century. Grindelwald wants to see that peace destroyed." 

Back in the early days of the internet before videos went "viral", there was a Thanksgiving cartoon about a chef who needed to serve too many people with a small turkey. So to compensate, he kept stuffing that sucker until it eventually exploded. Watching the latest entry in the J.K. Rowling Wizarding World, I was very much reminded of that early video. There's an attempt to make the running time a bit leaner than we've typically seen with these films. It's just barely over two hours, making it one of the shortest running times in the series when you include the Harry Potter films. But it doesn't appear as if there was an accompanying cut of "stuff" going on. Rowling and director David Yates have crammed so much into the film that it gets very difficult to really keep up with it all. I left with a feeling that I had been overwhelmed. It's a semester college course in three days. Of course it's loaded down with exciting visuals and larger-than-life characters that have become a staple in the franchise and have incidentally made Rowling the richest woman on the entire planet. She'll add a few shekels to the bank account, to be sure. The film will score huge with the box office take. But it serves little else but set up a game board. Its purpose is to identify the players and which side of the good vs. evil battle they will be playing for. It might just be the most expensive trailer ever filmed. But it's one people will pay hundreds of millions to have a chance to see. Fantastic Beasts: Crimes of the Gindelwald is a Thanksgiving feast of truly monstrous proportions.

Steve McQueen has established himself as a rather talented director. 12 Years A Slave was one of the better films of 2013 and one of the few times I happened to agree with the Oscars’ choice for Best Picture. When he tackled the heist format I expected something unique, and I wasn't at all disappointed. McQueen managed to put a clever spin on a tired genre and provide us with a superior and inspired cast. It wasn't all completely his idea, of course. The film is based on a Canadian miniseries that goes back to the 1980's. That doesn't mean he hasn't found a way to imprint the material with his own style and bold choices. There's a lot to love about Widows, but I have pretty low expectations for this film at the box office. More on that later. Let's get down to it, shall we?

Harry Rawlings (Neeson) is a career criminal. His wife Veronica (Davis) knows where the money comes from, but she's willing to feign a great deal of ignorance to the fact because she has become used to the comfortable style in which they live. But it all comes crumbling down when Harry's latest heist appears to go horribly wrong and Harry perishes in an explosive encounter with the police along with his entire crew. Now Veronica is feeling the grief that comes with the death of a spouse, but there's more to deal with than that. The man Harry and his crew took down was a gangster by the name of Jamal Manning (Henry), who has taken a dip into politics. He's going up against the corrupt Jack Mulligan (Farrell), who is running to take his father's alderman seat. Manning's $2 million war chest was Harry's target, and the money appears to have been destroyed in the explosion that took down the crew. Now Manning has gone to Veronica and has given her one month to refund his money.

“For the record, I am a better Dorthy Parker than Dorthy Parker.”

Looks like Melissa McCarthy is attempting to branch out from her usual branch of raunchy comedy. Or at least she is dipping her toe in the water of such an idea, as Can You Ever Forgive Me is not without its raunch. Based on  the novel by Lee Israel, a known literary forger said to have forged over 400 false letters from notable writers, McCarthy plays the character and brings the comical quips that she has became famous for. Paired with Richard E Grant, the two work off one another with positive results. Probably one of the best examples of a non-romantic pairing I’ve seen this year.

By John Delia Jr.

The fabled story of the Nutcracker has many experiences, from plays, to musicals, to theater, and to operas; it has entertained us all for a century. What if these stories are real, and these Christmas toys really do have a world of their own? That would be a tale we all would love to hear. Enter Disney's The Nutcracker and the Four Realms. After the death of their mother, Clara (Mackenzie Foy), Fritz (Tom Sweet), Louise (Ellie Bamber), and their father, Mr. Stahbaum (Matthew Macfadyen), must endure the Christmas holidays without her. Struggling to move on with the events of the season, Mr. Stahbaum pushes them all to attend the annual event at Drosselmeyer’s house.

"Is this the real life or is this just fantasy?"

I think even Queen's biggest fans might have trouble distinguishing between the two in the Freddie Mercury/Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody. And that's absolutely okay. If you look at the film's trailers, the movie looks less like a bio-film and more like a celebration, and that's exactly the kind of experience you're going to have from beginning to end. I'm sure that a lot of film and Queen fans shared more than a little skepticism over the project. I know that I certainly did. But all of that magically disappeared when the first trailer hit the internet and we all watched in amazement as actor Rami Malek appears to be channeling the manic spirit of Queen front man Freddie Mercury down to the smallest of detail. Suddenly I believed that everything was going to be okay. But just as our hopes and expectations were about to hit the ceiling, the film started gathering controversy after controversy like a snowball rolling down a steep hill in the winter. Everyone already had an opinion before the film was even finished. For months the web has been filled with issue after issue, and it all seemed to threaten the buzz we all got from the trailers. We're going to talk about those issues, to be sure. If you let any of that filtercrap keep you from checking out Bohemian Rhapsody, you're going to be missing the next best thing to actually seeing Freddie and the boys live in concert. Since that's not going to happen, this is where you want to be.