'Beautiful Boy' Review

Beautiful Boy chronicles the inspiring experience of survival, relapse, and recovery in a family coping with addiction. When Nicolas' meth addiction threatens to destroy him, his desperate father does whatever he can to save his son.

Based on the best-selling pair of memoirs from real-life father and son David and Nic Sheff, Beautiful Boy is directed by Felix van Groeningen and features a screenplay co-written by van Groeningen and Luke Davies. Van Groeningen immediately immerses the audience into the dual perspectives of Nic and David through non-linear storytelling as he cycles between flashbacks and the present day. Occasionally, this made the continuity and chronology of the film a tad confusing, but it amounts to merely being an insubstantial flaw once you figure out when the said scene takes place. Between the soundtrack and score, there were certain songs and musical cues utilized which didn't quite fit the scene they accompanied. However, the soundtrack overall has an excellent collection of songs on it, and I've become obsessed with John Lennon's "Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)" in particular. Otherwise, I really didn't find any other issues.

Beautiful Boy may be a little messy here and there in regards to structure, but I believe that's meant to be an intentional reflection of Nic's unfortunate predicament. Having never personally experienced anything like this, I can't quite vouch for whether the film's depiction of addition is authentic or not, but it sure felt real from start-to-finish. Believe it or not, nothing in Beautiful Boy seemed overdramatized for the sake of being more cinematic. The film felt honest and down-to-earth regarding its central tragedy in ways I wasn't expecting. To be quite honest, I'm not sure I've ever been more emotionally-invested watching a film in the theater before. I cried during virtually every other scene because the events shown were brimming with raw emotion due to the very nature of the narrative's heartbreaking situation and the exceptional acting on display. While some may consider Beautiful Boy emotionally manipulative, I feel otherwise. To me, the emotional beats were earned and felt genuine on account of a layered story. David feels guilty for partially enabling his son's addiction, and watching him struggle to become more accountable while his son descends into the cycle of addition was devastating, to say the least. Thanks to the flashbacks mentioned above, the father-son relationship feels even more established, which in turn enhances the eventual emotional beats and concurrent drama.

If one thing's to be said about Beautiful Boy though, it's that Timothée Chalamet and Steve Carell give career-best performances. Chalamet digs in deep to exhibit an honest portrayal of an introspective addict while Carell exemplifies a caring, supportive father. His emotions settle just under the surface, and it's gut-wrenching to merely watch David struggle to maintain composure around other family members when you can just tell he's ready to break out in tears. The heart-to-heart conversations between the two actors will absolutely obliterate your heart in addition to showcasing the actor's immense range. Less prominent in the ensemble, Maura Tierney and Amy Ryan each put forth a pair of strong performances in spite of the film's attention primarily going towards Carell and Chalamet.

All in all, Beautiful Boy is a poignant, tearjerking cautionary tale about the perils of addiction. Not always pretty, but certain to tug at your heartstrings with a subtle sincerity and the force of at least five thousand men.

Film Assessment: A 

'Call Me By Your Name' Review

Nominated For: Best Picture, Best Actor; Timothée Chalamet, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Original Song "Mystery of Love" (written by Sufjan Stevens).

Won: Best Adapted Screenplay.

Call Me By Your Name takes place in Northern Italy during the summer of 1983, and follows seventeen year old boy Elio as he reads books, transcribes classical music, and flirts with his friend Marzia. When American student, Oliver, arrives to help Elio's father as a research assistant, Elio and Oliver begin to discover things about themselves they could have never imagined and a romance blossoms between the two.

Call Me By Your Name is helmed by Italian director, Luca Guadagnino, and is an adaptation of André Aciman's novel from screenwriter James Ivory. The film has received heaps of Oscar buzz and critical acclaim, with some going as far to declaring it to be the best film of the year, so naturally my interest was peaked and I decided to check it out. I'm going to come straight out of the gate though and let you know that this film just wasn't for me. 

Art is subjective, so it can mean more to one person and less to another. In this case, Call Me By Your Name simply didn't speak to me. I'm not trying to be edgy and cool by speaking out against this movie or anything like that... I had similar feelings about Moonlight last year as well, which I respected for being a well-made film, but was otherwise apathetic towards. I was fully aware of the general plot and central gay romance so that wasn't really a deciding factor in my disinterest, but I'll touch more on that in a moment. In general, Call Me By Your Name just bored me. 

I understand Guadagnino meant for the film to be a slow burn, but slow burns always have a spark at some point, and Call Me By Your Name had none. The relationship between Elio and Oliver is clearly meant to be said spark, but I was personally perturbed by the relationship... First, the age-gap is quite alarming. Oliver is twenty four and Elio is seventeen. While a seven year age gap doesn't really matter in the older stages of life, you've gotta admit that it's at least a LITTLE unsettling, regardless of whether those involved are gay or not. An age-gap like that legitimately qualifies as pedophilia in my book... I understand the age of consent is different in Italy, and this sort of thing is more readily accepted... but that's not what I picked up from the film because it seems to have been frowned upon in 1983.

So, let's say the relationship was hypothetically more age appropriate... Even then, the leads didn't have particularly great chemistry with one another in my opinion. The characters feel emotionally distant and are rarely developed, so I had an extraordinarily difficult time investing interest in anyone onscreen. I'm sure anyone reading my review that thinks otherwise will say it's because I'm a straight white male, but I promise that has absolutely nothing to do with it.

Timothée Chalamet has already been making the rounds in the early awards circuit for Best Actor, and I couldn't disagree with the sentiment that his performance is one of the year's best any more if I tried. Chalamet has MOMENTS of greatness here, and I thought he was quite good as the shunned son in Interstellar and the cool kid in Lady Bird so my comments aren't in any way insulting his acting ability. However, Elio mostly casts a vacant, expressionless stare... 

I'm sure Chalamet was asked to do so by the director for the purposes of communicating Elio's insecurity, but it's just so wooden that I couldn't help but lose interest. There are a few emotional outbursts that I'm sure sparked the Best Actor conversation, but it's nowhere near as powerful as the other exceptional acting I've seen from lead male performers this year. Just look to Get Out, Logan, Baby Driver, War for the Planet of the Apes, The Big Sick, Detroit, Wind River, The Disaster Artist, Darkest Hour, and even Star Wars: The Last Jedi for goodness sake!

As for Armie Hammer, I've liked him in both The Man From U.N.C.L.E. and The Lone Ranger, and feel he's just as charismatic here. However, I couldn't get past the aforementioned "creep factor" of their relationship, and one unique use of a peach certainly didn't help matters... Other members of the ensemble who I feel are far more deserving of a mention would have to be Michael Stuhlbarg, who's simply killing it this year with his choice of projects (mainly The Shape of Water and The Post), and Esther Garrel. Stuhlbarg has one very subdued quiet conversation with Elio that was absolutely extraordinary, and Garrel had a captivating screen presence throughout despite her limited role.

None of this is to say the film isn't good though... I actually think the sun-soaked cinematography offered plenty of picturesque moments, Sufjan Stevens' songs are sensational ("Mystery of Love" in particular), and the arrangements assembled for the soundtrack are pleasant to the ear. It's just that I struggled maintaining interest in the characters and events unfolding onscreen, and that's something that's important to me as a viewer.

I'll call Call Me By Your Name for what I really think of it as, an overly long, uninteresting film. Hard to believe it's actually getting a sequel...

Film Assessment: C

'Lady Bird' Review

[This review was originally written in November 2017 and is now being published that my internship is over. For an explanation of this, visit my Fall 2017 Important Update post.] 

Nominated For: Best Picture, Best Director; Greta Gerwig, Best Actress; Saoirse Ronan, Best Supporting Actress; Laurie Metcalf, and Best Original Screenplay.

Lady Bird flies alongside Christine "Lady Bird" McPherson, a rebellious and strong-willed teenage girl intent on defying her mother at nearly every turn in her senior year of high school in Sacramento, California. The film then encompasses her experience balancing school work, her debut in the realm of musical theater, friendships, romantic relationships, and a turbulent family life while doing her darnedest to get accepted in any prestigious East Coast university.

Lady Bird is a comedic coming of age story written and directed by Greta Gerwig, functioning as Gerwig's solo directorial debut, which will surprise most considering that Gerwig seems to have a firm handle on things for her first solo outing. Some have said that Gerwig may have loosely based the events around her own teenage years, but regardless of whether the film is based on actual events or not, everything in Lady Bird is fully fleshed out and realized to the point where I thought this must have been based on real life events because the film felt so genuine. 

One of the best things about Lady Bird though is how the film offers a fresh perspective on a seemingly typical coming of age narrative. Gerwig doesn't simply focus on one element of Lady Bird's life, but rather soaks it all in. I'd liken Lady Bird to last year's The Edge of Seventeen, but the films are radically different from one another in spite of their similar approaches of peeking into a teenage girl's day-to-day life. Like this year's other stand-out comedy, The Big Sick, Lady Bird also doesn't bother to fabricate events for the sake of a laugh, but the silly situations and priceless dialogue rather feel like things these characters would do or say in real life. This only makes the events funnier as comedies often try so hard to sell a gag that they lose sight of the likelihood it could or would ordinarily happen on its own. 

At its core, Lady Bird is all about a rocky mother-daughter relationship, and it's thanks to actresses Saoirse Ronan and Laurie Metcalf that their mother-daughter dynamic comes across as both endearing and strained. Ronan really digs into the role, as Lady Bird is easily one of her quirkiest characters to date, while Metcalf realistically portrays the complexities of an over-worked mother who aims to keep her daughter in check. Metcalf excels at ensuring Marion comes across as a harsh, but loving mother, so the pathos is present and believe me, you'll be on the verge of tears (if not actually crying for whatever reason) towards the film's conclusion.

Filling out the remaining supporting characters are various actors you may recognize including the beaming Beanie Feldstein, Manchester By The Sea's subdued star Lucas Hedges, the apathetically-driven Odeya Rush, Call Me By Your Name's breakout actor Timothée Chalamet, and Tracy Letts as Lady Bird's best friend Julie, Lady Bird's first boyfriend Danny, the popular girl Jenna, the cool Kyle, and Lady Bird's lovable father Larry. Each actor delivers a performance differentiated from their prior work, so there are ample opportunities for their characters to shine.

Lady Bird is simply one of those captivating coming of age stories that don't come around too often. Lady Bird doesn't just fly away as one of the year's funniest comedies. It also soars as one of the year's best films on account of its accomplished direction, sharp script, and committed cast. 

Film Assessment: A

Recollection Reflection Review: 'Interstellar'

This review was originally supposed to be published the week Dunkirk was released, but it just got delayed and delayed and delayed due to extenuating circumstances... However, we can just pretend I'm publishing it now to coincide with Dunkirk's home media release and the upcoming Ultra HD 4K editions of Nolan's films next week. In other news, I'm all caught up with my draft reviews of more current releases (which I'll soon finally be able to share with you) and I'm currently overcoming an illness, so it seemed like the optimal time to finally work on this review.

'Interstellar' Review

Nominated for: Best Visual Effects, Best Production Design, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Original Score.

Won: Best Visual Effects.

Recollection- 'Interstellar' Review

Reflection- I can recall seeing Interstellar in IMAX three years back and being blown away by Nolan's mastery of storytelling, both visually and narratively. I'd consider my older review of the film more simple in detailing my thoughts when compared to my more recent reviews, but that's exactly why I started doing these Triple-R Reviews! Anyways, since that review I've discovered more and more to love about Interstellar every time I watch it, so I suspect this review will come across as much more enthusiastic!

Review- Interstellar launches audiences into a future where Earth is experiencing a global crop blight and a second Dust Bowl that are rendering the planet to be uninhabitable. When mysterious forces lead former NASA pilot Cooper to the secluded remnants of NASA, physicist Professor Brand informs Cooper there may be a way to save mankind. Ten years prior, NASA sent twelve landing pods to twelve potentially habitable worlds through a wormhole on a series of missions known as the Lazarus missions. Of the twelve sent, three promising worlds were discovered in one system. Cooper then joins the crew of the Endurance to travel through the wormhole to that system and identify which of those three planets would be optimal for human colonization.

Interstellar was directed by Christopher Nolan, who also cowrote the film's screenplay with his brother Jonathan Nolan. Interstellar was Nolan's ninth feature length film and his first project following the completion of the Dark Knight Trilogy, but Nolan's auteur fingerprints can still be found all over Interstellar. The film is just as emotionally and intellectually charged as the best of Nolan's work and even features one of his trademark ambiguous endings.

Interstellar's defining characteristic is its determination to tell a personal story on a universal scale. Nolan wisely waits to widen the scope of the character's circumstances till aptly investing audiences in the focal father/daughter relationship between Cooper and Murph. Only then, does Nolan up the ante. Cooper is presented with a monumental decision to choose between abandoning his kids in hopes of saving the human race and staying on Earth to raise his children at the risk of humanity's survival. Objectively, it'd be easy to pronounce a decision. However, in actuality, the alternatives bear fare more weight. By firmly establishing a steadfast bond between Cooper and Murph, the stakes have astronomically risen and audiences understand Cooper's trepidation as he journeys out into the great unknown. From that point onward, Interstellar's anecdotes revolve around perseverance in the face of the most improbable odds, proving that love is the only thing that truly capable of transcending time and space.

Technically, Interstellar is masterfully made in every way, shape, and form imaginable. The visual effects are not only awe-inspiring to look at, they also bestow an authenticity to the incredible and extensive fabric of space. In fact, I can't think of a single frame that looked as though it were captured inside a sound stage against a green screen background. In other departments, the film features stunning cinematography, intense editing, phenomenal production design, stirring sound editing and sound mixing, and another sensational score from Hans Zimmer. I'd daresay it's one of his best film scores to date because each composition not only suits the subsequent scenes, but also stands as an epic piece of music on its own merit. In fact, I often listen to themes from his Interstellar soundtrack because it can be soothing or simply provides a grandiose sound that's difficult to find elsewhere. 

Sure, the sequence inside the tesseract can be a bit of a head-scratcher on first viewing, but I've found it to make much more sense on subsequent rewatches. The sequence really serves as the lynch pin of the entire film, tying everything together remarkably well thematically and narratively. 

As for the cast, Matthew McConaughey turns in one of his most emotionally vulnerable performances yet as Cooper. McConaughey sells Cooper's warmth and trauma equally well with many of his scenes packing an emotional wallop. The sequence where he leaves his family is notably heart-wrenching, as well as one onboard the Endurance when he's watching video messages from his grown children. If neither of those bring you to tears, then you're simply not human. Mackenzie Foy and Timothée Chalamet also deserve some recognition for playing the younger versions of his two children, Murph and Tom. Foy, in particular, shows a lot of promise as an captivating child actor considering she's never overshadowed by McConaughey's larger-than-life screen presence in their scenes together. 

Jessica Chastain and Casey Affleck lend themselves to playing the adult versions of Murph and Tom, and both are quite good, but Chastain takes the cake. Chastain expertly builds upon everything established by Foy and McConaughey to ensure the mature Murph is resolute, intelligent, and headstrong, but believably so. 

As for the crew of the Endurance, Anne Hathaway convincingly captures Brand's intellect and empathy while David Gyasi discerns Romilly with more cerebral sense.

Rounding out the Nolan regulars, Michael Caine offers a solemn, serene performance as Professor Brand with one scene in particular that really shows his acting talent beyond playing a sophisticated British man.  

Last but certainly not least, I must credit Bill Irwin for voicing and operating the hydraulics for the snarky tactical robot, TARS. I think the design of the robot is unique and impressive on its own, but I've found myself gravitating towards the robot every time I watch Interstellar thanks to Irwin's precise line delivery.

Perhaps, three years ago I would have told you that I merely enjoyed Interstellar for Nolan's astonishing craftsmanship and superb storytelling, but it's only now that I realize Interstellar is an film that will endure the test of time for its impeccable example of the resilience of the human spirit. It's emotional. It's intelligent. It's insightful. It's exceptional.

Film Assessment: A+