Quick takes on Thirteen Lives and other films

I didn’t rush out to see Jurassic World Dominion in theaters; I wasn’t all that thrilled with the last film in the series, and the newest one was getting pretty lackluster reviews. I’m glad I waited, as I have to say, this is just about the worst Jurassic Park film to date. That’s not to say that all the dinosaur action is bad, but the whole thing is starting to feel a little played out. In this one, dinosaurs have escaped their confines at the end of the last movie, and the whole world has started learning how to live with dinosaurs in their day-to-day lives. A new genetic company has opened a base in the mountains of Italy and has been proactively gathering the dinos there, doing research, ostensibly to find cures to human diseases in their DNA. At the same time, some monster sized locusts have started eating up crops in the midwestern USA, and there’s a thought out there that the genetic company isn’t completely on the up and up. Original Jurassic Park leads Grant, Sattler, and Malcolm are headed to Italy to see what they can see, while at the same time, the newest Jurassic World duo of Grady and Claire Dearing are attempting to rescue their adopted daughter, genetic clone Maisie, who’s also been kidnapped to Italy. There’s a million moving parts here and the film has severe sequelitis; the writers definitely threw everything against the wall to see what would stick. Not much does, and the movie is honestly a bit of a mess. It’s not all terrible, and it is nice to see the original team back in it, but I think it is safe to say that this franchise in its current form is done (or should be). ★★

As They Made Us is about a family dealing with tragedy, while at the same time tiptoeing around past hurts from within. Abigail is a 30-something with a couple kids that she is coparenting with her ex-husband. Her father Eugene has been deteriorating physically, and her mother Barbara calls her constantly to say how father has fallen, or he isn’t eating well, or whatever the case may be. Abigail doesn’t know how bad it is until she goes along to a doctor visit one day, and discovers that Eugene will not be getting better. For awhile now, doctors have been trying to tell Barbara that he will continue to get worse, and that they should start thinking about end of life treatment, but Barbara just ignores the advice and continually seeks different opinions. Armed with the knowledge of what is really going on, Abigail has to confront her mom with the facts, and attempts to make Eugene’s last weeks more comfortable at home. Throughout the course of the film, we see flashbacks of Abigail’s and her brother Nate’s growing up in this turbulent, sometimes violent, household. As children in the 70s, there were no words for what their parents were; only later diagnoses showed that Eugene is bipolar and Barbara has borderline personality disorder. Their constant arguments and the volatile household drove Nate away, and he never spoke to his parents again after he was kicked out of the house. It’s a great story, and anchored by a stellar performance by Dustin Hoffman as Eugene (Candice Bergen is Barbara), but, and I hate to say this, Dianna Agron is pretty awful as Abigail. Very wooden acting, with dialogue delivery that sounds unnatural. I’ve seen her in stuff before and never had this reaction, so maybe some of that comes from first-time write/director Mayim Bialik, though you’d think that her long career in the business would help, even if it is her first time behind the camera. Strong, emotional story let down by a poor central performance. ★★★

Thirteen Lives is the based-on-a-true-story film about 12 boys and their soccer coach getting stuck inside a cave in Thailand when it floods, an event I remember well when it happened in 2018, as it drew the world’s attention for a couple weeks as people tried to think of a way to get them out. The film gets you into it right away: the boys innocently head to a cave for just a couple hours, with an adult to watch over them, when heavy rains arrive suddenly. Monsoon season has come early, and when the boys don’t come home that night, their parents start searching. It is quickly discovered they went in the caves, but by the time a search and rescue team gets there, sections of the cave have already become completely flooded. Even Thailand’s Navy SEAL’s are unable to get through; they are trained in deep sea diving, but are unfamiliar with the tight confines of cave diving. The international community arrives in droves, with volunteers from all over coming to lend a hand. Two leading cave divers from England, Richard Stanton (Viggo Mortensen) and John Volanthen (Colin Farrell) are finally able to reach the boys 10 days after they went missing. They are starving, but alive. The trick comes in getting them out, something which the pessimistic Richard doesn’t think is possible. They boys are several kilometers into the cave, past sections that are completely underwater, including a few moments where the spaces to get through are no bigger than an adult’s shoulder width. The rescuers can’t just lead the boys out, because, being untrained, they’d get frantic, risking their lives and the lives of their rescuers. When John puts forth a daring plan involving putting the boys to sleep with anesthetic drugs and pulling them out sleeping, it may be their only hope. With more rain coming, time is running out. Directed by Ron Howard, this film is an emotional roller coaster and thrilling throughout. I was exhausted at the end, but in a good way, from 2 hours of heightened tension. ★★★★

The Black Phone, starring Ethan Hawke as a child abductor, was marketed as a scary movie but comes off as more of a thriller, and not a groundbreaking one at that. Taking place in late 70s suburbia, “the grabber” has been kidnapping high school kids in the area, setting families on edge. Finney, frequent target of bullying both at school and at home by his alcoholic father, is the latest victim. After being grabbed, he wakes up to find himself in a soundproofed basement room. The Grabber will let Finney live as long as he plays by the rules, but these rules are a bit murky. Thankfully, he has help in learning the game: a phone attached to the wall, which isn’t plugged in, still rings when Finney is along, and on the other end are the other kids that the Grabber has nabbed and killed. From beyond the grave, each kid gives Finney advice as to how to survive, and how to attempt an escape. Helping find Finney are the police, as well as his little sister, who seems to have inherited a bit of psychic feeling from their deceased mother. The film has a few jump thrills, but that’s about it, and the ending was no surprise. Hawke is a great actor, but he is over the top in this one, and not in a good way. Very average movie. ★★½

Honor Society wasn’t on my radar until I saw quite a few positive reviews pop up in my feed, and as a short film at about 90 minutes, I figured I’d give it a go. 20 minutes in, I thought I’d made a mistake, but it ended up paying off in the end. The film follows a high school senior named Honor (Angourie Rice, known from the latest Spider-Man trilogy). She’s pretty, popular, and near the top of her class, but she doesn’t care about any of that. She wants out of the little town and never wants to come back, so her sights are set on going to Harvard. She’s had a plan since freshman year, which involved charming up to high school counselor Mr Calvin (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), who is buddies with a successful Harvard alum and can thus get her a solid recommendation. Unfortunately, there are 3 other deserving students in her class: the typically smart Asian student Kennedy Park, the athletic star Travis Biggins, and the class nerd Michael Dipnicky (Stranger Things’s Gaten Matarazzo, in his first on-screen film role). Honor will stop at nothing to get that Harvard recommendation, so she sets out to bring down the other 3, finding ways to distract them right when midterms are hitting, thus hurting their grades. It’s a sleazy premise, which is why I found it so off-putting in the beginning, but despite her gruff exterior, Honor is a good person, and all of her targets end up coming out better in the end. But, for a change, the ending has a pleasant surprise that, for a film like this, truly comes out of left field and left me stunned. Not hilariously funny, but enough chuckles (and awkward feelings too, thanks to Mr Calvin’s not-so-subtle creepster vibes) that it kept me entertained to the end. ★★★½

For having never seen Heat, my friends at work gave me some, well, heat. Honestly not sure how I missed this one with such an amazing cast, but I was very busy doing school stuff in 1995. Directed by Michael Mann and with a cast including Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Jon Voight, Val Kilmer, Tom Sizemore, Ashley Judd, and a young Natalie Portman (fresh off her breakout debut), this is a police procedural/crime thriller about the cat and mouse game between a detective and his criminal adversary. The film begins with a heist: a trio of thugs takes out an armored vehicle and grab a cool 1.6 million in bonds, the only thing they know they can grab quickly before backup arrives, and are off the scene before the cops know what hit them. Unfortunately, one of the hired thugs takes the opportunity to kill one of the security guards, leading to the team having to kill the rest to leave no witnesses. This grabs the attention of the LAPD lieutenant, a very smart man who sees exactly what is going on, and he hits the streets to shake loose some informants. That is only the start, and it builds from there. The people the thieves stole from are ready to kill to send a message, and isn’t long before the cops are circling too. Lots of moving parts here and a large cast, but it’s not hard to follow. I think the film lost a little steam in the second half (and it’s a long movie at nearly 3 hours), but the explosive ending is very satisfying. ★★★½

• TV series currently watching: Yellowstone (season 2)
• Book currently reading: Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens