The Reel World

by John M. Delia, Jr.

Our life experiences influence what we do in our future, and what our parents experience could also influence how we are as well. And in tragedy and death, we experience large amounts of loss that could also transfer to our unborn offspring. Lastly, we experience many ups and downs throughout our lifetime, and how we react to those good or bad experiences make up who we are and how strong our will is to survive. Keep moving along knowing that there will be good life experiences, even though you will always have many hurdles to overcome, as we see in Life Itself.

Children’s fairy tales have taken a new drift with the film The House with a Clock in Its Walls.  Packed with exciting action adventure, the movie, based on the book by John Bellairs, envisions the story with an incredible amount of CGI.  You could almost call the film animated, but that’s a good thing here as things go bump in the night, magic forms the basis, and solving the mystery becomes the prominent focus for older youngsters. Orphaned due to a car crash that took his parents, young Lewis Barnavelt (Owen Vaccaro) gets invited to live at his Uncle Jonathan’s (Jack Black) magical mansion. He’s a bit fearful of the old house with its grand stairway and many mysterious rooms, but Lewis sort of likes the flamboyance of the magician turned warlock.  There he’s introduced to Jonathan’s neighbor and best friend Florence Zimmerman (Cate Blanchett), who assures Jonathan that he will enjoy living with his uncle.

Uncle Jonathan has only one rule for Lewis: he mustn’t open a special cupboard, ever.  Things go well for Lewis until it’s time he attend the local middle school.  There he’s the odd man out, as cliques have formed between the boys long before he came there.  Surprises abound his new life, and when he helps Tarby (Sunny Suljic), one of the school kids running for class President, he feels he’s finally made a friend. But things are not what they seem to be, and it leads to Lewis breaking the one rule he had promised he wouldn’t.

"Predators don't just sit around making hats out of rib cages. They conquered space."

In 1987 Predator became somewhat of a milestone film for many reasons. The movie would anchor a franchise thanks mostly to a wonderfully original Stan Winston creature design and the performance of Kevin Peter Hall under the suit. Both Winston and Hall have since passed, but the alien hunter that they created together is still going strong. The film also featured two stars who would later go on to become governors of their states. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jessie Ventura made their mark in politics. The film also featured Rocky's Carl Weathers. It also featured Shane Black in a small role that might not have contributed to the blossoming franchise then, but he has made his own impact by writing and directing the latest installment of that franchise The Predator.

There is something about the words “based on a true story” that seems to have a certain effect on us and seems to alter our perception of a film.  Then there is something about a true crime story that seems to excite us even more; at least for me, I enjoy these films where we get a glimpse of the seedy underbelly of society. So when White Boy Rick comes along to tell the tale of the youngest FBI informant who also happened to be an arms dealer and drug kingpin, well, this is the kind of film I tend to get excited about.  When I first saw the trailer, it had me thinking this could be a hodgepodge of American Hustle, Blow, and Goodfellas all wrapped into one. Unfortunately, though the film has some great talent and oodles of potential, the result is a good-looking mess on the screen.

The film opens up in 1984 where we meet Rick Wershe Jr. (Richie Merrit) and his dad Richard Wershe Sr. (Matthew McConaughey) at a gun show.  We get to see the duo hustle one of the dealers as they are purchasing a pair of AK-47’s.  What we can pick up on from the start of the picture is that there is a believable chemistry between McConaughey and Merrit that we can believe these guys are father and son.  There is also Rick’s sister Dawn (Bel Powley), who has become a drug addict, and we see her early in the film leave home to be with her unsavory boyfriend. Rounding out the Wershe clan are the grandparents, played by Bruce Dern and Piper Laurie.  Had the film simply focused just on the family, I believe there could have been a stronger film here, but the relationship between Rick and Dawn is definitely the weak link and becomes a distraction to the story, because she seems to just pop in and out of the film without bringing anything to further the story.

The favor, a paramount commitment of friendship. Everyday friends engage in this covenant, without batting an eye. But what if that favor had lasting consequences? That is how this story begins, and it rapidly descends into a tale of love, loyalty, murder, and revenge. Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively join together for a quirky and campy mystery entitled A Simple Favor that I actually must admit that I enjoyed more than I was expecting to. I mean, obviously, Blake Lively is a captivating beauty, and Anna Kendrick is the embodiment of the girl next door. Not to mention no one does that quirky charming persona like Kendrick. However, if I had to pick who was the more entertaining of the two, I would have to give a slight edge to Lively, for reasons that I will soon elaborate on. A Simple Favor is based off a book of the same name. I’m not sure how closely the film followed the book, but I imagine that the audience will not be disappointed with the film.

Kendrick plays Stephanie Smothers, a mommy blogger and single mom whose life became all about her son following the death of her husband and brother in a car accident. When her son befriends another kid in his class, she meets the beautiful and enigmatic Emily Nelson, a working mom who is very outspoken. The two bond during a play date with their kids, and Stephanie begins to really admire Emily and her life with her husband. One day, Emily calls Stephanie and asks a simple favor: pick up her son after school. Stephanie is happy to oblige, but hours quickly turn into days and no word from Emily.

Social media, along with our growing number of mobile devices, are dominating our lives. Today it's how we shop. It's how we communicate. Hell, it's how we date. For many of us, our devices have become how we see and experience the world around us. The new electronic culture has also changed our movie experience, as more and more films and television shows are going directly to our devices instead of our television and multiplex screens. It's also changed the way films are made. Recently, I reviewed a film shot completely on an iPhone. It should come as no surprise that a film would come along that tells its entire story through the lenses of these devices. It's a natural extension of the found-footage genre and has been used in many films already.  Searching delivers its entire story through the "eyes" of these devices. But this is more than a concept film. Searching gives us compelling drama and makes a significant emotional connection without ever breaking character. I found it to be a film with style and substance. That's a rare combination, and so Searching is well worth the visit to your local cinema. That is, if you can put your devices down long enough to enjoy it.

As the film begins, we get to see the evolution of the Kim family through their social media posts, their video and photograph posts, and their communications. We watch Margot (La) grow from a young girl to a teenager. We share the triumphs and tragedies of their lives, particularly the loss of her mother, through these posts and snapshots. With videos and posts we spy on the family's unfolding sorrow as Margot's mother slowly succumbs to cancer. We get to see the dynamics of a father and daughter dealing with the loss, and all through the window of various electronic devices. One night Margot goes missing ,and her father (Cho) begins to investigate where she might have gone. We witness the moment when he realizes how much of his daughter's online life he didn't know. The unknown passwords and who her friends really were. David Kim becomes an internet detective as he peels away each layer of her life. And all of this is seen through the eyes of apps, database programs, and social media.

Too often the word classic is overused and often misunderstood. When I hear or read a critic calling a new film a classic, my blood boils a bit. I often say that the only thing wrong with instant gratification is that it takes too damn long. It takes the endurance of time to define a classic. There must be some lasting effect on a culture. The 1973 Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman film Papillon fits that description, in my not-so-humble opinion. It's a film that had a strong impact upon me when I saw it so many years ago and is one of a dozen films I try to watch at least once a year or so. Because of those vivid images that remain with us so long, classics are bad choices for a remake unless there is truly something more that can be done with the material. Often it's a technical breakthrough that just wasn't possible when the film was first released. But even that rarely is reason enough. Today we can do photo-perfect images that sure beat the heck out of that constantly malfunctioning shark in Jaws, but still no shark film has ever come close to capturing the same impact. With Papillon the draw is that the second book written by Henri "Papillon" Cherriere is reported to have supplied additional material for the remake of Papillon. It wasn't enough.

The story is essentially the same. Cherriere (Hunnam) is charged with a murder he claims not to have committed and is sent to the infamous early 20th Century French prison in French Guiana where he experiences primitive conditions and inhuman treatment and from where he manages a daring and unprecedented escape. The additional material is quite scarce. This time we see how Cherriere was set up and arrested. That provides about 10 minutes of the film's opening act. The rest is a couple of minutes in the form of a coda where he returns to France as an old man to sell his story to a French publisher. The rest is pretty much all to be found in the original film.

Ever since Jaws splashed onto the screen back in 1975, Hollywood has been attempting to follow its success, and though some films have been valiant efforts, nothing seems to come close to the Spielberg classic.  Sure, effects have come a long way over the years,  and through the Hollywood magic of special effects they can create a more realistic looking shark, but to be fair, many of the film’s more memorable moments don’t even have the shark on screen.  When I first heard about The Meg, it was going to be in the hands of Eli Roth of Cabin Fever and Hostel fame. This seemed to be like a good pairing that would result in a blood-fest filled with shark carnage that would leave shark fans pleased, but eventually the studio decided to pass, and the project seemed almost dead in the water.  I had known about the film’s struggles to get made for years but hadn’t known that it went back to the 90’s when the rights to the book by Steve Alten had been first purchased.  When the studio signed Jon Turteltaub (National Treasure), it was clear they were aiming to produce a summer tent-pole film, and as my excitement grew, I caved and started reading The Meg series that Alten had published, and I was hooked.  I’ve been looking forward to this film for a while. Could it possibly live up to my expectations? …Well, it came close.

The film opens up with Jonas Taylor (Jason Statham) as he is on a deep-sea rescue mission.  While he and the few members of his crew are searching for survivors on a wrecked sub, there seems to be something in the water with them that is attacking the sub.  All we know is that it is something massive, and it forces Taylor to have to make a quick decision that results in several casualties.  It’s years later when a scientific research team is exploring the Mariana trench and is planning to dive deeper than ever before, past a layer that was believed to be frozen.  It’s when the dive team passes beyond this cold layer that we see some beautiful effects, as this underwater world we are getting to explore with the team is filled with numerous deep-sea dwellers, though it doesn’t take long before the team is attacked.  Apparently Jonas is the only one available who can possibly save the deep-sea crew. As it just so happens, one the crew members turns out to be Taylor’s ex-wife Lori (Jessica McNamee).  This is also the point where it’s discovered Taylor’s claim that the prehistoric megalodon is haunting the deep sea turns out to be true. Why Taylor would make this jump in reasoning from what we saw in the opening scene is beyond me, but I’ve accepted that this is a popcorn ride, not something we’re meant to dwell on.

Ever since Do the Right Thing came out in 1989, Spike Lee has been a director critics and fans have kept an eye on. Over the span of his career he’s done everything from music videos with Michael Jackson, documentaries, television shows -- but mostly he’s made his claim to fame in film. His films have been all over the place. As critical and box office successes, Inside Man to this day may be his biggest success financially, but of all his films it is the one that feels the least like a Spike Lee film.  The man has a distinct visual style; most of his films take place in New York, but the typical thing you’ll find in his films is the “black culture” and the topic of race relations.  With his latest film Blackkklansman, Lee ventures into some familiar territory, but for the first time in quite a while he delivers a movie with a strong message but also manages to be entertaining.

It’s the 1970’s when we meet Ron Stallworth (John David Washington). He’s in the middle of an interview to become the first black officer of the Colorado Springs police department. The interview is equally as uncomfortable as it is amusing at the same time, and this kind of tone is what plays out over the course of the film.  Let me say from the start, this film doesn’t shy away from delivering racial slurs that are pretty much spoken from start to finish of this film.  When Stallworth first gets hired, he’s stuck down in the records room, but it isn’t long before he is asked to help out on an undercover assignment that requires him to infiltrate a gathering where a prominent Black Panther member will be speaking.  This is a scene that is handled really well by Lee as we watch Stallworth listen to the speech; it’s also here where Stallworth meets a potential love interest, Patrice (Laura Harrier), who happens to be a black activist leader.

"If anyone wants to clap, now is the time to do it."

If he were alive today, A.A. Milne would likely find a reason to smile these days. Perhaps he is. Winnie The Pooh has made quite a bit of a comeback in recent years. Last year we saw the impact the creation had on his son, the real Christopher Robin, in the sentimental Goodbye, Christopher Robin. This year Disney continues its recent trend of bringing many of its classical animated features back for live-action remakes using the wonderful world of computer-generated f/x and motion capture performances. The recent Jungle Book release was a wonder to behold and one of the best films of that year. This year it's the world of Winnie The Pooh, and to help celebrate the 50th anniversary of Winnie The Pooh And The Blustery Day, Disney releases Christopher Robin, and you're not going to want to miss it. All of your favorite characters from both the classic books and the Disney cartoons is back, and it couldn't have been a moment too soon.