Tag: movies

The Last Black Man in San Francisco

complicated love/hate relationship with the place

last black man in San FranciscoWhen I was in Indiana, the youth director of my church had recommended the movie The Last Black Man in San Francisco to the teens in our charge. As it turned out, my wife and I had seen it at the Spectrum Theatre in Albany a couple of weeks earlier.

I hadn’t written about it, partly for time, but mostly because I was stuck in describing it adequately. The IMDB posting says, “A young man searches for home in the changing city that seems to have left him behind.”

Rotten Tomatoes (93% positive with critics, 84% positive with audiences) is more descriptive: “Jimmie Fails [Jimmie Fails] dreams of reclaiming the Victorian home his grandfather built in the heart of San Francisco. Joined on his quest by his best friend Mont [Jonathan Majors] Jimmie searches for belonging in a rapidly changing city that seems to have left them behind.”

Looking at the reviews, I’d agree that it is fresh, original, poetic, an aching portrayal, well-acted, “leaning into its ambiguity, humanity and a quizzical moodiness.” More than one critic notes the “complicated love/hate relationship with the place he calls home that makes [director Joe] Talbot’s love letter to the city so riveting and rewarding.”

So you get the sense of loss, a metaphor for the current housing shortage in the city by the bay. It’s perhaps confusing at first, these skateboarding buddies, one who wants to do upkeep on property not presently his.

Eventually, the story by Fails, Talbot and Rob Richert makes sense to me. There are some great performances by Danny Glover as Montgomery’s blind grandfather, plus Tichina Arnold, Rob Morgan, Mike Epps, and Finn Wittrock.

My friend David Brickman says it’s the best movie of the year so far, and he may be correct.

You probably won’t find The Last Black Man in San Francisco in theaters at this point. If you watch it on pay cable or on DVD/BluRay, you might well find it challenging but, I hope, rewarding.

Movie review: Yesterday (2019)

Of course, the music was great

Yesterday_(2019_poster)The Saturday before the trip to Indiana, the family was in Binghamton for a family reunion. Since we started early enough, we decided to stop at the AMC Theater near Binghamton to see the new movie Yesterday.

I’d been seeing the trailer for months. The premise is high concept. “Struggling UK musician Jack Malik (Himesh Patel) decides to give up his career, despite the support of his manager Ellie Appleton (Lily James). But in a bizarre twist, he suddenly realizes that he remembers the music of The Beatles, but apparently no one else does.

“Realizing this improbable opportunity, Jack begins playing the music of the greatest of the rock bands, claiming it as his own. It pays off quickly and Jack becomes a worldwide musical sensation.” But how long can you pass off someone else’s art as your own?

I know this will come as a big surprise to y’all, but I’ve been a huge fan of the Beatles for over a half century. I accepted the premise, and laughed out loud few times. The performances were enjoyable, including those by Kate McKinnon as a hard-edged music producer, and Ed Sheeran as a character named Ed Sheeran.

The critics were only so-so about Yesterday (63% positive on Rotten Tomatoes, though 89% of the audiences liked it). It’s not without its flaws, but I found it a lovely, escapist tale. Hey, Paul and Ringo liked it.

I was particularly struck by Lily James as the friend taken for granted. She is SO much different than the her performance as the titular character in All About Eve.

Of course, the music was great. There’s always speculation how the Beatles would be received now, but the band is so much a part of the cultural DNA, it is really unanswerable.

A little about the AMC theater. We went there as a result of a retirement gift card from one of my sisters The venue on the Vestal Parkway has great, cushy leatheresque seats that recline. It was quite possibly the most comfortable cinematic setting I’ve been to.

On the other hand, it had fully 30 minutes of previews. I don’t mind seeing three or four coming attractions, but I lost count after eight. The nice thing is that they indicated when the film was opening, presumably so you could buy your ticket TODAY.

Movie review: The Farewell (2019)

What is a “good lie”?

The FarewellThe movie The Farewell address the apparently imminent death of a family member. Importantly, it’s about a huge lie designed to keep the news from that matriarch of the family. Why? Because it’s the Chinese way.

Awkafina stars as Billi, who now lives in New York City, as do her parents. But she’s often on the phone with her Nai Nai or grandmother (Shuzhen Zhou) in China, who she loves dearly. Billi is devastated when she hears that Nai Nai is dying of cancer. But she is bewildered when she learns that a mock wedding is being arranged so that Nai Nai’s family can say goodbye to her without Nai Nai realizing it.

The cliché in film/literature is that the more specific the story, the more universal the application. If you’ve ever gone to more than three weddings, you’ve experienced the groanworthy elements of this one, including the music. The brief appearance of the tall, handsome, unmarried doctor who helps maintain the fiction would play just as well if the characters were Jewish or Italian.

A placard early on says “Based On An Actual Lie”. What is a “good lie”? Billi’s uncle, who lives in Japan explains that in America, they’re into personal rights and responsibility. But in the East, it’s more of a collective burden. There is great effort extended in maintaining the façade.

The Farewell features some heavy themes. Yet it is often quite funny. The viewer relates to Billi, as she struggles with what she thinks is right versus what the family has agreed to. It’s also a paean to what one consider “home.” Awkwafina’s performance is quite credible.

The movie also stars Tzi Ma as Billi’s father. He is the quintessential, “Oh, THAT guy.” He’s very good, as is the rest of the cast. I should note, in case you’re allergic to such things, that the film, written and directed by Lulu Wang, features subtitles, not 100% of the time, but often enough.

My wife and I saw The Farewell on July 29 at the Spectrum Theatre in Albany, when I scored two free passes. We were sitting in the middle of the third row from the front. I told the woman on the aisle that there was a 90% chance that someone would come to sit on the two interior seats in the row after the lights went down; I was correct.

Since there were no previews, this meant their disruption was during an early scene. Then one was on her phone, which later went off. Had I been sitting next to her – my wife was – I would have been severely tempted to take the device away from her.

Movie review: Late Night [Kaling]

Mindy Kaling also wrote the screenplay

Late Night - PosterBefore my wife and I saw the movie Late Night at the Spectrum 8 in Albany, I’d read a discouraging piece. Specifically, Why Romcoms are bombing, in which Ken Levine wrote:

I’ll be very honest here. I don’t like Mindy Kaling. I don’t find her funny in any way. That’s me. That said, if all I heard was buzz that this was a laugh riot and the one movie to see this summer I would race to the theatre. I’d be thrilled to change my position on Mindy Kaling. Instead, I’m hearing, “not funny,” “on the nose,” and “formula.” Pass.

Late Night is a romcom? It’s not what I viewed. The Rotten Tomatoes description: “Legendary late-night talk show host’s world is turned upside down when she hires her only female staff writer” – she had been accused of being a “woman who hates women.” “Her decision has unexpectedly hilarious consequences as the two women separated by culture and generation are united by their love of a biting punchline.”

I enjoyed Emma Thompson as the prickly perfectionist Katherine Newbury. the host would rather book the author Doris Kearns Goodwin than the latest YouTube star. Some have compared her to Meryl Streep’s character in The Devil Wears Prada. She can’t be bothered even to learn her writers’ names. But the ratings have been down for a decade, so change is necessary.

Kaling, who wrote the screenplay, plays “diversity hire” Molly Patel. At first, she’s in way over her head, but she eventually discovers how to be useful. It is the evolution of Katherine, with Molly as catalyst, that’s the driving force of the film.

The boys’ club nature of the writers’ room is also touched on, as Molly discovers why all the guys are using the women’s bathroom.

The movie’s always good when John Lithgow, as Katherine’s husband Walter Lovell, who is experiencing Parkinson’s disease, is on the screen. Perhaps the best scene in the movie involves Katerine and Walter in a theater.

I also enjoyed the performance of Kaling’s former The Office colleague Amy Ryan as Caroline, the network executive. Late Night also stars Denis O’Hare as put-upon Brad, the show runner; the writers Charlie (Hugh Dancy), Burditt (Max Casella), Tom (Reid Scott), and Mancuso (Paul Walter Hauser); and Ike Barinholtz as stand-up comedian Daniel Tennant.

I thought Late Night was a good, not great movie, the kind of film that gets 79% positive review on RT. It could have dropped a subplot or a character and still be coherent.

But I appreciated the issues it brought up and the acting. The penultimate shot was a bit “on the nose”, I suppose. There were comic moments; not a “laugh riot” but I don’t think that was the intent. It was worthwhile viewing.

Movie review: Toy Story 4 (Pixar)

a fine coda

Toy Story 4I saw Toy Story 4 in a movie theater, the Spectrum 8 in Albany. Every Toy Story I’ve seen at a cinema. Since the first two movies came out in 1995 and 1999, respectively, pre-parenthood, it was my own volition in seeing them.

The third film I saw with my wife but without my daughter in 2010. Since my wife and daughter saw #4 without me, I saw it by myself.

Woody (Tom Hanks) and the rest of the toys are on a road trip with Bonnie (Madeleine McGraw) and her parents (Jay Hernandez, Lori Alan), just before Bonnie enters kindergarten. The toys’ primary task is keeping track of the new character named Forky (Tony Hale), who has issues.

Woody unexpectedly runs into his long-lost friend Bo Peep (Annie Potts), now a “lost” toy. They have philosophical differences when it comes to what the role of a toy should be. Bo, despite her porcelain construction, is impressive.

Ultimately, Woody, Bo, and some new friends such as Ducky (Keegan-Michael Key) and Bunny (Jordan Peele), have a mission. They have to sneak into the antique store run by Margaret (June Squibb), a place Bo knows too well. It’s not just the old-school doll Gabby Gabby (Christina Hendricks), but her friends, all of whom are creepy identical ventriloquist dummies named Benson.

There is a lot of insecurities revealed in Toy Story 4, including from daredevil Duke Caboom (Keanu Reeves). It can be difficult to find your place in the world, even if you’re a doll.

This is a fine coda to the franchise. Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) and Jessie (Joan Cusack) had smaller but vital roles in the narrative. I LOLed at a scene involving dependence on GPS.

Toy Story 4 received a 98% positive rating in Rotten Tomatoes. Matthew Norman of the London Evening Standard wrote: “The legislation it flouts is the law of diminishing returns which governs movies with numbers after their names.”

Disney Removes ‘Toy Story 2’ Scene That Recalled Hollywood Casting Couch Abuse.

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