Starting today with a great film that, I think, can hit very close to home for a lot of people in our country, on a subject very often not talked about. Private Life is about a couple in their upper 40’s who have waited, possibly, too late to decide they want to have children. Richard (Paul Giamatti) and Rachel (Kathryn Hahn) have all ready done several cycles of IUI and are now moving on to the more expensive IVF. At the same time, they are exploring adoption and surrogacy, but so far are finding dead ends and disappointment everywhere. When it becomes clear that Rachel can’t provide enough viable eggs, a niece steps forward to offer one of her own, against her mother’s wishes. But even this doesn’t seem to go well. I’m not telling if you’ll find a happy ending here or not, but you will find fantastic performances by all actors involved, and a truly special movie that explores all aspects of the frustration over infertility, including family problems, the drain on the relationship and sex life, the stigma that follows women who have problems conceiving, and everything else.
Telling the story of Queen’s rise to stardom from humble beginnings, culminating in their triumphant concert at Live Aid in 1985, as well as Freddie Mercury’s personal struggles, Bohemian Rhapsody features a standout performance by Rami Malek as Mercury. I write this the day before the Oscars, so I don’t know yet if he won, but he is certainly deserving. Though the movie is just OK (not bad, not great), Malek IS Mercury for those 2 hours, and not just because of the dental prosthetic he used to help get him the look. Those biopics where the actor disappears and the muse is all we see are the ones that stand out to me, and this fits the bill. The film tries to do its best to show all of the members of Queen, and continually drives home that the band was a family as a whole, but make no mistake, this is Malek’s film and he commands the camera in every scene, just as Mercury did in life.
The Miseducation of Cameron Post stars Chloe Grace Moretz as Cameron, a high school girl in the early 90’s, found making out with a girl in a car outside of their homecoming, and then sent to a gay conversion therapy center by her Christian parents. There, Cameron is continually questioned by adults and other teenagers as to why she has feelings for girls, and why she is the way she is, and who did this to her, but Cameron doesn’t know why. She faces the questions the same way someone would ask why the sun comes out every day: just because it does. At the same time, she does make friends among those that are forced to be there, who aren’t trying to “get better.” The film depicts some of the downright ridiculous things that go on in these camps (Maybe Cameron likes girls because she has a masculine name? A boy getting his hair shaved off by a teacher for letting it grow too long.) and some of it is hard to watch, especially a devastating moment near the end. A powerful line comes in the last 10 minutes when a person asks Cameron if she is being emotionally abused here, and her reply is, “How can a place that teaches you to hate yourself not be emotionally abusive?” Moretz has all ready made a ton of movies at her young age (just 22 right now), and she’s had both hits and misses. I’ve always found her to be at her best in the smaller, independent films she’s done, and she shines here again.
What They Had is about a family clinging to things that just aren’t there anymore, no matter how much they wish it were so. Bitty clings to her daughter’s college education, though the daughter hates school. Bitty is also clinging to her 20 year marriage, which is perfect on the surface but miserably lonely to her. At the center of it all is Bitty’s parents Norbert and Ruth. Ruth is suffering from dementia but Norbert is clinging to the memory of how things were, and refuses to let her go to a care facility, despite her becoming increasingly more dangerous to herself. Bitty’s brother Nick is the pragmatist who sees everything as it truly is. The film is about a lot of things, much can be taken from it, but perhaps what I took the most is the traps we can fall into in our closest relationships. It is easy to play a part, because it is safe, expected, and comfortable, but perhaps not always the best for us. Great work by all four leads, Hilary Swank, Michael Shannon, Robert Forster, and Blythe Danner.
I tried to like Suspiria, even though I think lead actress Dakota Johnson can’t act her way out of a paper bag. It has an interesting premise and I really wanted to get into it, but I could only make it 1 hour and 8 minutes before tossing in the towel. The setup takes place in 1970s Berlin, at a famous dance school, with newly arrived Susie there to take the world by storm. A former student has just mysteriously gone missing, after having spewed crazy stuff about witches and rituals about the school to a psychiatrist. Great start, unfortunately a suspenseful thriller should have both suspense and thrills, and this film just seemed to be spinning its wheels. There were a couple good moments, and some grisly scenes that will leave even a horror film connoisseur squeamish, but if there’s not enough after an hour, I’m not sticking around for the rest. The movie is based on an Italian classic which is highly regarded, so maybe I’ll give the original a go sometime.
Jons Movie Takes 