It’s been over 2 weeks since my last post, which is a lifetime for me! I’m an Olympics junky, and spent that time cheering on my country. It was nice to just sit back and let my mind rest too, but I’m excited to get back into some new movies!
I’m starting off with Moonfall, which I did go see in the theaters at some point the last couple weeks. This one is about, well, just what it sounds like. The moon has gone off its orbit and is slowly headed towards a crash course with the Earth. Brian Harper (Patrick Wilson) is a disgraced astronaut who got in trouble during a mission a few years previously when his space trip came in contact with an alien presence. His former friend Jocinda Fowler (Halle Berry), who didn’t stick up for him back then, now needs his help to see if they can stop the moon before it kills everyone here at home. They are aided by a conspiracy theorist named KC Houseman (Game of Thrones’ John Bradley), who has suspected for a long time that the moon isn’t exactly what it has always seemed to be. Lots of computer-aided special effects as the approaching moon causes gravity mayhem and other disasters, but the action is about the only thing going for this movie. The dialogue is truly eye-roll worthy, and the plot “twists” make less and less sense as the movie goes along. It’s the latest disaster flick from director Roland Emmerich (Independence Day, 2012, The Day After Tomorrow), but generally I like his action dramas better (The Patriot, Stargate). Decent eye candy but that’s about it. ★★
I was not expecting to be moved so fiercely by The Fallout. The film follows Vada, a normal 16-year-old girl, whose life is shaken when a student shoots up her school one day. Vada takes shelter in a bathroom with 2 other students whom she doesn’t know well: Quinton and popular school beauty Mia. Afterwards, Vada feels lost and hollow, and doesn’t know how to return to normal life. Nick, previously her best friend, becomes involved in activism against school violence and gun control, but Vada isolates herself from him and her family. Living through that moment with Quinton and, especially, Mia brings Vada closer to them, and she starts hanging out with them more. With Mia, whose parents are often off traveling for work, Vada finds someone with whom she can share her innermost feelings on feeling lost and unmoored. I’m lucky to have graduated high school in ’98, when the worst school violence I saw at the time were bad fist fights in the hall that would bring teachers running. We had fire and tornado drills but never a shooting drill. Thus, this movie was eye-opening for its stark portrayal of what our teens have to deal with today. More than that, Jenna Ortega is fantastic as Vada, a girl struggling to find footing in a world that doesn’t make sense anymore. ★★★★½
I don’t have a ton of experience with Turkish films (outside of Nuri Bilge Ceylan, whose movies are of an entirely different feel). My Father’s Violin is a family film about a girl who finds herself in the center of family drama. Özlem is an eight-year-old girl whose father, Ali, has raised on his own. Ali is a street musician and while they are poor, Özlem is happy. That is, until Ali dies suddenly. Özlem is faced with heading to an orphanage, so her father’s musician friends reach out to Ali’s estranged brother Mehmet, the only surviving family she has. Mehmet is a celebrated violinist and he doesn’t have time to take a little girl into his life. Mehmet is persuaded by his wife to take Özlem on paper, with the intent to hand her over to Ali’s friends, but a wrench is thrown into the works when the child welfare group mentions they will have perform a surprise visit to Mehmet’s house at some point in the next month to make sure Özlem is being well cared for. In the next month, Mehmet will have to balance caring for a child, preparing for a big upcoming concert, and facing the demons that separated him and his brother long ago. It’s a decent family flick with a good message, cheesy in all the right places. Maybe it’ll be popular in Turkey, unfortunately I can’t see any American kids sitting through a film with subtitles. ★★★
Munich: The Edge of War is a historical drama based on a book from a few years ago. It tells a fictional story set inside a real-life event. After an initial introduction showing a trio of friends graduating from Oxford in 1932 (British citizen Hugh Legat and German couple Paul and Lena), the film jumps to 1938, on the precipice of World War II. Legat works in Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain’s office as an aid, when he is approached by MI6 with a mission, something that no one will know about, even Chamberlain. British intelligence has been approached by Paul in Germany, who has information about Hitler’s longterm plans. Once a Hitler supporter, Paul has had a change of heart, and he hopes to influence Chamberlain not to agree to the summit to be held in Munich, a meeting between the four European superpowers in play. It’s a high stakes attempt at altering the course of history and preventing what seems an inevitable war. There’s some great actors here (Jeremy Irons as Chamberlain, 1917’s George MacKay as Legat), and while the film has its moments, it comes off as awfully wordy and light on tension. One of those cases where I’m sure the book is a lot better, and something gets lost in the transfer to screen. ★★½
Paper Spiders follows Melanie (Stefanie LaVie Owen) as she approaches high school graduation. She’s a bright kid with a bright future, but her home life is suddenly on the rocks. Her dad died a few years ago, and her mom, Dawn, is showing signs of cracking. Dawn (longtime indie film actress and award winner Lili Taylor) has it in her head that their new neighbor is harassing her. At first, she thinks he is throwing rocks at the house and trying to break in, but later Dawn is certain he is crawling on the roof, using a machine to give her headaches, and following her to work. When Dawn loses her job and Melanie tries to reason with her boss for a second chance, he gives Melanie a revelation: Dawn’s behavior is not new, and she’s been suffering from paranoid delusions for quite some time. The house is already under financial stress, even more so when Dawn pays out $5000 to a private investigator to rig up the home with CTV cameras and spy on the neighbor. Melanie doesn’t know what to do. She’s doesn’t want to turn on her own mom, but by not confronting her sooner, she faces disastrous consequences later. Living with someone with a mental illness is obviously never easy, but this picture shows how it can be infinitely harder when all of that responsibility falls onto a 17-year-old, with no family or friends to help. ★★★½
- TV series currently watching: The Book of Boba Fett (mini-series)
- Book currently reading: God Emperor of Dune by Frank Herbert
Jons Movie Takes 