Tag Archives: Tri-Star

Movie Review ~ The Woman King

by Movie Review • Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The Facts:

Synopsis: The remarkable story of the Agojie, the all-female unit of warriors who protected the African Kingdom of Dahomey in the 1800s with skills and a fierceness unlike anything the world has ever seen.
Stars: Viola Davis, Thuso Mbedu, Lashana Lynch, Sheila Atim, John Boyega, Hero Fiennes Tiffin, Adrienne Warren, Jordan Bolger
Director: Gina Prince-Bythewood
Rated: R
Running Length: 135 minutes
TMMM Score: (8.5/10)
Review:  At some point, much lauded and well-seasoned actors that have paid their dues in the business get to pick whatever projects they want to without apology.  That’s my thinking, at least.  Giving their all to studio pictures and independent productions over time, these actors have been through the Hollywood wringer of press tours and galas, awards shows, and far-flung media events.  So, when an actress like Meryl Streep chose to do Mamma Mia! and people were aghast, I was thrilled because it felt like a project she wanted to do, rather than one she felt she had to. 

Initially, I felt like Streep’s co-star in Doubt, Viola Davis, was taking a page from that same playbook with The Woman King.  The movie had all the makings of a passion project that allowed Davis another prestige run at the Best Actress Oscar while telling an important piece of world history.  Surrounded by an array of up-and-coming talent and helmed by a director who has more than paid her dues in the industry, the entire package has the essence of pre-destination toward one goal.  That kind of turned me away from it.  Originally.

Once again, it shows you just how much of an impact marketing has on the viewer.  Far more commercial than expected, The Woman King is rousing entertainment that hits the ground running and barely takes a breath over the next 135 minutes.  Oscar-winner Davis (Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom) disappears into the role, dedicating herself physically and emotionally to the work.  Featuring terrific supporting performances you can engage with, this could be a word-of-mouth sleeper hit if enough people get to it early on and keep it in the conversation. 

A quick history lesson at the top of the film gives audiences the backstory of the Kingdom of Dahomey and its conflicts with the neighboring Oyo Empire.  With the Kingdom guaranteeing their survival by organizing their economic income around the Atlantic slave trade with the Europeans, there was much strife as they quickly grew in power, wealth, and status.  Protecting these resources were the Dahomey Amazons, the Agojie, which grew in strength and number after the males of their population fell to wars with the Oyo.

General Nanisca (Davis) is the respected leader of the Agojie, rising to a high rank as a trusted confidant and advisor to the King (John Boyega), encouraging many successful decisions that kept them secure.  She has concerns over the increased reliance on the slave trade, hoping to redirect the King’s attention to exporting goods available on their land instead of the people with families that could harvest it.  The Agojie must maintain their numbers and have just accepted a new batch of recruits that will need to train and pass a series of tests.  Among them is Nawi (Thuso Mbedu), a girl turned out of her house for refusing a pre-arranged marriage. 

Headstrong and fearless, Nawi would make a perfect Agojie if she could turn off her emotions as quickly as the others.  The more Nanisca and her two most revered second-in-commands, Izogie (Lashana Lynch, No Time to Die) and Amenza (Sheila Atim, Bruised), push Nawi to break away from the spirit that guides her, the harder she fights to retain her individuality.  With tensions rising between visiting Europeans hoping to broker better deals between Dahomey for enslaved people and the Oyo who want to move in on this business, the Agojie will band together to ward off those threatening their land as well as their family.

Bound to draw comparisons to semi-similar works such as Braveheart and Gladiator, in the end, The Woman King sits capably on a throne of its creation.  Screenwriters Maria Bello (an Oscar-nominated actress most recently seen in The Water Man) and Dana Stevens (who penned 1993 thriller Blink) did their homework, making an effort before the movie was even off the ground to ensure the film had accuracy and a valid point of view from which to speak.  They’ve partnered nicely with their star, who takes the leading role and surprises us again with the mastery of her craft.  Another transformative part she can add to her lengthy list of incredible roles, Davis charts the cracks Nanisca shows and how it begins to eat away at her ability to be the same leader she was in the past. 

Amplifying her performance is Mbedu as the headstrong newbie of the group.  Whether it was intimidating going toe-to-toe with Davis or not, it’s no small feat to swipe scenes out from under the more experienced star.  Yet Mbedu is fascinating to watch each time she’s on screen, learning internal truths about herself through her training and time with her Agojie sisters and conveying them outwardly to us in small ways.  You’d be hard-pressed to choose an MVP in The Woman King between Lynch and Atim; both offer beautifully realized different sides to the same coin flipping back and forth between Davis and Mbedu.  

If there’s one area where The Woman King struggles, it’s the male characters.  Every man is presented as an obstacle to some woman trying to get the job done.  This plot device is well-worn, and while Boyega (Breaking) fares the best, the rest are as crudely drawn as the woman finely etched.  That’s especially evident in Jordan Bolger’s storyline with Mbedu, adding a romantic subplot that feels like a concession for the studio instead of a fully realized development.  The sparks aren’t there between the actors (more Bolger’s fault than anything), and anytime they’re together, the film drags significantly.  

Prince-Bythewood is comfortable staging the movie, whether it be a large-scale action sequence or a more intimate moment shared between the women when they let their guards down.  These human passages give the film its best heart and set the stage for the battles that get more involved as you understand the Agojie better.  Once you have a warrior to root for, you track their every move and hope no harm comes to them.  A new, more realistic hero for a young generation to look up to (it’s PG-13 and astonishingly gruesome), the Agojie and The Woman King are getting ready to reign.

Movie Review ~ Happiest Season

1
by Movie Review • Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,


The Facts:

Synopsis: A young woman with a plan to propose to her girlfriend while at her family’s annual holiday party discovers her partner hasn’t yet come out to her conservative parents.

Stars: Kristen Stewart, Mackenzie Davis, Alison Brie, Aubrey Plaza, Dan Levy, Mary Holland, Victor Garber, Mary Steenburgen

Director: Clea DuVall

Rated: PG-13

Running Length: 102 minutes

TMMM Score: (9/10)

Review:  I wouldn’t say that I’ve been stuck on the same cycle of Christmas movies over the years but what I will admit is that I’ve attached myself to a select few holiday films that spoke to me as I grew older.  That’s because a number of Christmas films never really appealed to me as a person so I found it hard to relate to them, and it became more of a struggle as I got older.  I’m an only child and gay so watching movies with large family gatherings seeing everyone coming home with their husbands and wives started looking less like my life and more like a strange phony Christmas card.  So when it came to movies to watch over Christmas, I kept to the old standards and eschewed most of the newer ones, leaning toward any that focused on “different” families during the holidays.

Thankfully, as the world has evolved so have the entertainment options and that’s why a sizable shift has occurred in the offerings of the season.  Movies that show diverse families, gay couples, interracial relationships, the differently abled, autistic, etc. may not be there in droves but they are there and each year there are more of them.  Already this season we’ve had the fantastic Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey with its largely black cast appear and snuggle into the Netflix queues of many and now Hulu is presenting Happiest Season, a gay Christmas film from queer director/actress Clea DuVall (Argo).  Though originally targeted for a theatrical release, Hulu is debuting it on Thanksgiving and it should give audiences from all walks of life something to be grateful for in 2020.

Girlfriends Abby (Kristen Stewart, Personal Shopper) and Harper (Mackenzie Davis, Terminator: Dark Fate) have been living together for six months and Abby is ready to ask Harper to marry her.  Though not a fan of Christmas and without parents, she takes Harper’s last-minute invitation to her family’s home for the holidays as a sign that the time is right to make it official.  She has the ring and though her best friend John (Dan Levy, Admission) thinks marriage is archaic, wants to ask Harper’s dad for his blessing before popping the question in front of her family.  There’s just one tiny problem.  Harper hasn’t told her strait-laced family that she’s a lesbian and with her father about to start a run for mayor of their conservative town, she doesn’t think it wise to rock the boat during the holidays.

Against her better judgement and because Harper tells her this after they’re in the car and nearly there, Abby agrees to lie and pretend to just be Harper’s roommate for the duration of their stay.  Referred to as “the orphan” by Harper’s mom Tipper (Mary Steenburgen, Book Club), Abby is introduced to the rest of the family including dad Ted (Victor Garber, Sicario), and sisters Jane (Mary Holland, Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates, also a co-writer) and Sloane (Alison Brie, The Rental), each with their own secret or personal hang-up that will spill out over the next few days as they come together for festive gatherings.  As Abby watches Harper change when confronted with her judgmental family and their high standard expectations, she begins to question how much she actually knows the woman she fell in love with in the first place.  With Harper’s ex-boyfriend hanging around and a big family dinner approaching, can Abby still pop the question and will Harper be honest in front of her family and friends?

Fans of The Family Stone will find Happiest Season to be a not-so-distant relative in terms of style and tone and I half expected Sarah Jessica Parker’s character in that holiday film to show up in the final scene because she easily could have been a fourth sister in this tightly-wound family.  That film has its share of detractors (it took me several watches to truly appreciate it) but I don’t think Happiest Season will have trouble earning fans out of the gate.  DuVall and Holland have crafted a believable, tender, and often very funny film that applies just the right amount of emotion throughout.  It’s just serious enough to get a message on how each person’s coming out story is different and why support for that timeline is important and it’s humorous enough to land elevated comedy that isn’t your usual farce fare.

Still a rather new director, DuVall has an ease in her method that lends a grounded feel to the proceedings, helped immeasurably by a homerun cast.  I think we’ve all come to the agreement that Stewart is just bound to keep surprising audiences and she does it here again with the most relaxed, lived-in role I’ve seen her offer up in quite some time.  The naturalism is on such a different level that at times it feels like DuVall just happened to capture Stewart out and about, in her element.  If Davis comes off a little less successful, perhaps it’s only because she’s wearing several different masks throughout and we’re so on Abby’s side that every time Harper denies their relationship in public it pulls us further away from her.  Together, the two actresses create a believable picture of a couple in love and, even better, one that has settled into a flow with an ease about their interaction that comes across nicely.  That’s what makes the events while they’re at the house sting, because we can see how different Harper is acting in front of people that don’t know her for who she really is.

It’s always a gamble when a co-writer is also a significant supporting character and while Holland has given herself a character with some of the most outright funny bits in the film (and she’s quite funny, make no mistake), she knows when to point the spotlight away as well.  Garber’s role is a bit thankless, as is Brie’s, mostly because at the outset they are outwardly the most staid characters so it’s good news that Steenburgen’s chipper Tipper is such a joy no matter what she’s doing onscreen.  Both Levy and Aubrey Plaza (The To Do List) have smaller roles than are advertised and while Levy is basically doing an extension of the character he played on Schitt’s Creek (and gets the movie’s most genuine moment of clarity), Plaza blessedly is tasked with a more serious vibe that works nicely for the usually comically obtuse actress.  The only awkward moment in the movie is a very ill-advised sequence when Stewart is interrogated by two mall security officers played by Lauren Lapkus (Jurassic World) and Timothy Simons (The Hustle) – it’s totally unfunny and pointless, feeling like a favor DuVall did on behalf of two friends that needed a paycheck.

Some will skip Happiest Season because they don’t agree with what is represented within and that’s unfortunate.  Unfortunate they can’t see that love is love and unfortunate they are missing a well-constructed holiday film with strong performances and confident direction.  I can easily see this one making its way onto a rotation of Christmas films in my house and, paired with The Family Stone, a nice alternative to the overly maudlin cookie-cutter stereotypical products that are delivered yearly.  It’s time to think bigger and more inclusive and Happiest Season happily opens its arms wide to welcome all.

The Silver Bullet ~ Money Monster

by Silver Bullet - Trailer Park • Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

 

Money-Monster_poster_goldposter_com_1-400x593

Synopsis: A bombastic TV personality is taken hostage along with his crew live on air. Unfolding in real time, they must find a way to keep themselves alive while simultaneously uncovering the truth behind a tangle of big money lies.

Release Date: May 13, 2016

Thoughts: I miss Jodie Foster.  The two time Oscar winner hasn’t been in a film since 2013 (Elysium), choosing her projects so carefully that she’s now in a state of semi-retirement.  So whenever she does choose to come out to play, I tend to take notice.  Foster’s in the director’s chair for Money Monster but she’s brought on some heavy artillery casting two mega A-list movie stars to play a brash financial guru and his weary producer that get taken hostage by an irate fan. Foster’s directing roster may be spotty but this has the whiff of something interesting, and not just because George Clooney (Tomorrowland) and Julia Roberts (Mirror, Mirror) look well-matched (too bad I Love Trouble hadn’t been made today…then again…). Co-starring Jack O’Connell (Unbroken) and arriving at the cusp of the onslaught of big summer pictures, I’ll invest some time in this Monster.

Movie Review ~ Sparkle

by Movie Review • Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

The Facts:

Synopsis: Set in the 1960s, three sisters form girl group and soon become Motown sensations, but fame becomes a challenge as the close-knit family begins to fall apart.

Stars: Jordin Sparks, Whitney Houston, Derek Luke, Mike Epps, Carmen Ejogo, Tika Sumpter, Omari Hardwick, Cee-Lo Green

Director: Salim Akil

Rated: PG-13

Running Length: 116 minutes

TMMM Score (6/10):

Trailer Review: Here

Review:  There are two large shadows that loom mightily over this remake of the 1976 film of the same name.  The first is the obvious comparison to that other musical centering on a Supremes-like girl group in the 60’s: Dreamgirls.  If you look at the timeline carefully you’ll note that the original Sparkle came out a full four years before Dreamgirls opened on Broadway…thereby making it the first on the scene.  The parallels between the two are more than a little coincidental but Sparkle takes a harder edge in its latter half that would have seemed out of place in Dreamgirls.  Also, I’d say that Dreamgirls is an outright musical while Sparkle is a drama with the occasional musical number delivered from a stage, nightclub, or church.  The two may be similar in story but their paths diverge, making Sparkle less obviously about The Supremes.

The second shadow is more of a ghost like presence concerning co-star Houston who passed away in February just as the film was moving into post production.  It’s hard to say what kind of press the film would have received had Houston not died but it was her return to the screen after more than 15 years so a lot of attention would have been focused on this project anyway.  Houston also acted as executive producer of the film, having acquired the rights back in early 2000 with the intention to star alongside Lauryn Hill and Aaliyah.  When Aaliyah herself passed away the project was put on hold until now. 

Both of these shadows don’t sink the film that winds up being surprisingly pleasant even though it drifts a bit in the latter half.  It’s a fairly predictable flick and if you can’t see the pieces falling into place long before they do then you need your eyes checked.  Even with its telegraphed plot there is a winning quality to the film that keeps you invested based on the strength of the performances, production design and strong direction.

Like Dreamgirls, the star of the film is another American Idol alum making her screen debut and Sparks is mostly up to the challenge though she won’t be winning an Oscar for her efforts.  It’s not a star-making turn like Jennifer Hudson had in Dreamgirls but Sparks doesn’t embarrass herself, even if the role doesn’t quite fit her like a glove.  With her mega-watt smile the camera loves her and she fits the era well in terrific costumes by Ruth E. Carter.  Her Idol-tuned voice doesn’t truly fit the period (1968) however her vocals near the end have a rousing power to them. 

Speaking of the soundtrack, aside from music cues from actual popular music of that time none of the music sounds remotely late 60’s which is a shame.  Much of the new material was written by R. Kelly and its feet are firmly planted in contemporary pop music.  The music isn’t bad (especially the great “Running” sung by a secondary character played by musician Goapele) but authenticity flies out the window whenever the music starts to play.  Also, I would have bet the ranch that several of the actors had their vocals dubbed but careful inspection showed that everyone was doing their own singing…so basically they were just lyp-synching badly in the film.  Houston even struggled with matching her pre-recorded vocals when filming…which is surprising coming from an artist who famously perfectly lyp-synched The Star Spangled Banner at The SuperBowl.

While watching Houston onscreen I started to miss her presence all over again.  Yes, she struggled with addiction but there was no denying she had a voice that wouldn’t quit.  Her acting was spotty in her limited film career and had she made more films I believe she would have evolved…sadly it wasn’t meant to be.  In Sparkle, she’s the mom to the trio of girls that form Sister and Her Sisters and she takes care of business easily.  She’s the stereotypical single mom who has been-there, done-that and doesn’t want her daughters to follow in her footsteps.  At times, Houston plays the role a bit too nasty which makes the inevitable softening of her resolve at the conclusion harder to fully buy.  While Houston works through the material well she appears tired with her eyelids often at half mast and more than a few scenes played with her eyes totally closed.  Who knows what was going on during that period but for a highly hyped return to the screen (and as it turns out her final performance) she’s serviceable but doesn’t ace it. 

Brit Ejogo looks great and sings well as the lead singer of the group.  Without Sparks in the mix she would have (and probably should have) been the star of the show as most of the film revolves around her and the choices she makes as her star rises.  Ejogo has a pretty voice and at times looks an awful lot like Michelle Pfeiffer so you know my attention was rapt when she was onscreen.  Sumpter is probably the best actress of the group and gets to deliver some of the funnier lines as the worldly-wise sister that isn’t afraid to tell it like it is. 

The men in the film are a mixed bag and play their broad characters in support of the females – which is exactly what they should have done.  Epps and Luke play love interests to the Ejogo and Sparks characters and if neither actor gets to dig in deep they make consistent choices throughout.  If you’re going to see Green you’ll be in for a let-down as his appearance is strictly limited to the opening five minutes.  It’s nearly a walk-on role as he opens the movie with a song and then disappears.

Director Akil works from the screenplay his wife Mara Brock Akil updated and for the most part he’s delivered a good-looking, well-formed picture that should please fans of Sparks and Houston.  While some of the plot’s turning points are more convenient than believable (such as Bible-thumping Houston providing Sparks with the lowest cut Jezebel looking red dress this side of Mae West), it all somehow adds up to a harmless watch.