There are some movies that you really only need to see for one central performance. That is the case for Knox Goes Away, a fairly straight forward cerebral thriller that doesn’t always hit on all cylinders, but Michael Keaton in the lead role is worth the price of admission. He plays John Knox, an aging professional killer who has recently received a diagnosis of a rare form of dementia, a variant that will wipe all his memories within “weeks, not months.” Knox has been estranged from his ex-wife and adult son, and before he goes, he wants to make things right. Unfortunately his disease does indeed move fast, and his next mission goes sideways, when Knox kills the target, but also an innocent woman and Knox’s own partner Muncie. This gets the police looking for a professional killer in the area, and shortly thereafter, Knox’s son shows up at his house with literal blood on his hands, having just killed a man and looking for help. Knox will have to find a way to tie up all these loose ends before his mind is completely gone. There’s some good twists in here, and a strong supporting cast including James Marsden and Al Pacino in a small but important role, but the movie suffers from uneven dialogue, and I feel like they whiffed on Knox’s deteriorating condition. It could have really messed with the viewer and played more heavily on Knox’s disorientation. As I said though, Keaton (who also directs, just the second time in his long career) delivers a strong performance for his fans. ★★★
The Animal Kingdom is a strange French film but one that is certainly unique, which is always a good thing for people like me who watch a whole lot of movies. In the movie, people have (seemingly) been randomly hit with mutations, sprouting feathers or snouts or whatever the case may be, until they eventually become a large animal. Some of these animals become violent, and François and his son Émile have recently had to have their wife/mother admitted to a hospital when she started losing her humanity and was no longer able to recognize them. They move her to a new facility that is doing research on controlling the violent tendencies, and the father and son relocate to be near her. However, a transport carrying the woman crashes and she and others of her kind escape into the forest. François becomes consumed with trying to find her, failing to notice when Émile starts going through his own mutations. Scared, Émile hides it from his peers at school, mostly because of the fear in the community and world regarding these new “critters,” as the mutating people are derogatorily called. Eventually, Émile will be unable to hide it though, and the family (and the local authorities) will have to make some decisions on how to handle the growing problem. As a funny aside, this movie made me feel my age a little, as François is portrayed by Romain Duris, who played a bright-eyed college student 20 years ago in The Spanish Apartment; he’s neither young nor bright-eyed anymore, which reminded me that neither am I! ★★★½
The Long Game is based on a true story about a high school golf team in southern Texas in the 1950s. JB Peña has recently been hired as a new superintendent at a high school and wants to join the local country club to play golf, his favorite pastime, but being of Mexican descent, he is turned away. He notices that other young men in the area also love the game, but they are only able to get on the course as caddies and are not allowed to play because of their heritage. In order to get them (and himself) access to more courses, Peña starts a golf team at the school. To get their foot in the door, Peña gets his friend and former war buddy Frank Mitchell, an older white man in the area and member of that country club, to co-coach the team. The film tells of the racism the team faces at every turn, but they persevere and come together to try to make the state’s high school golf championship tournament. If it sounds like every other inspiring high school sports film you’ve ever seen, then you are just about right. There’s lots of uneven dialogue, some hokey moments in the plot, but ultimately it is a decent feel-good film with better-than-average acting (Jay Hernandez as Peña, Dennis Quaid as Frank Mitchell, and newcomer Julian Works as one of the boys, Joe Treviño, with supporting roles from Cheech Marin and Oscar Nuñez). ★★★
Coup de chance is the first Woody Allen film I’ve seen in awhile, and is his first French language film. Like my prior experience with most Allen films, it’s a very straight-forward film. Cute, but nothing earth-shattering. It follows a love triangle involving married couple Fanny and Jean, interrupted by an old friend of Fanny’s from high school, Alain. Alain literally bumps into Fanny on the streets of Paris one day and he confesses he had a huge crush on her in school. Alain is a big believer in destiny, that it was fate that brought Fanny back into his life. His charming, artistic, and bohemian way of life (he is a writer, whereas Fanny was an artist before she married the wealthy Jean) draws Fanny like a moth to flame, and the two begin an affair. The controlling and obsessive Jean starts to suspect something, and hires a private investigator to follow his wife. This ultimately leads to the big finale, though not in the way you may expect (though it is in keeping with the title of the film). Overall, it’s ok, maybe a little too “neat,” but big Woody Allen fans will find nothing to complain about. I do wonder why he moved it from New York to Paris, because it still feels like every other Allen New York kind of picture, just with the actors speaking a different language. ★★★
Nowhere Special is a very emotional, quiet movie that will certainly get you crying (and, I mean, ugly crying) by the end. John (played magnificently by James Norton) is a single father to 4-year-old Michael, after Michael’s mother left them shortly after birth. Already abandoned by his mom, Michael is a little quiet for his age, especially when talk of mothers comes up around his friends or others. Now, John needs to make sure Michael doesn’t feel abandoned again, because he (John) has been diagnosed with a terminal illness, and his time is measured in months. In fact, he looks worse and worse as the movie goes along. John is taking Michael to meet potential adopters, not telling him why, but trying to find a parent or parents who will properly care for Michael when John is gone. The adoption agency is trying to gently remind John that he doesn’t have much time, that new parents need to be in place and all the paperwork completed before John dies, but he is obviously trying to find the perfect home. At the same time, he knows he needs to talk to Michael about what is coming, to prepare him, but John doesn’t want to crush him either. Throughout this process, John becomes increasingly aware of other sons around him, from boys to teens, and seeing them do things that he will not be able to be a part of. It’s a tearjerker for sure, and one that had me sobbing unabashedly at the end. If you are a parent, you’ll probably end up in much the same state by the time the credits start to roll. ★★★★★
- TV series recently watched: Dark Matter (series)
- Book currently reading: The Machine Crusade by Herbert & Anderson
Jons Movie Takes 