IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK (2018) – My rating: 8/10

If Beale Street Could Talk is a romantic drama directed and written by Barry Jenkins, based on James Baldwin’s 1969 novel of the same name. It follows a young African-American woman who, with her family’s support, seeks to clear the name of her wrongly charged lover and prove his innocence before the birth of their child. There’s been lots of marketing of this movie, beware of over zealous advertising!  Still, I liked the film.

Clementine “Tish” Rivers (KiKi Layne) and Alonzo “Fonny” Hunt (Stephan James) have been friends their entire lives. As children, they did everything together, from taking baths to playing in the streets.  As adults, they enter a romantic relationship together and hold a bond between them that can’t be broken. After deciding to get married, they struggle to find a place to live as most landlords refuse to rent apartments to black people. Eventually they found a place in a warehouse that is in the process of being converted to an apartment building. Levy (Dave Franco), the Jewish landlord, agrees to rent it to them at a reasonable rate due to the fact that he enjoys seeing couples in love, regardless of their race.

**** SOME SPOILERS ****

One night, when Tish is shopping at a predominately White grocery store, she is harassed by a White man. When he begins to assault her, Fonny physically throws the man out of the store.  Officer Bell (Ed Skrein), who was nearby witnesses the incident but because of his racist background, attempts to arrest Fonny.  Bell reluctantly lets Fonny go when the lady who runs the grocery store vouches for the couple.  Soon after the incident, Fonny is arrested for raping a Hispanic woman, despite the fact that it would have been virtually impossible for Fonny to travel from the scene of the crime to the apartment where he was arrested. The case against Fonny is considered strong due to Officer Bell’s testimony, who says the he saw Fonny fleeing the scene plus Victoria Rogers (Emily Rios), the victim, picks him out of a line-up then disappears after identifying Fonny as her rapist. Tish, as well as Fonny’s friend, Daniel Carty (Brian Tyree Henry), were with Fonny and would be his alibi at the time of the rape, but their testimony isn’t considered reliable due to Tish’s romantic relationship with Fonny, and Daniel’s previous conviction for grand theft auto (despite his claim to not even know how to drive a car).

While the film is dealing with the most delicate of matters, it doesn’t give any closure to the story. If Beale Street could Talk opens at the apartment where the Rivers family live. A routine family dinner is taking place, showing the closeness of the family and their status in the community. Learning of Tish’s pregnancy, they decide to invite Fonny’s family over to share the news. The scene gets down right hilarious as insults and accusations fly between the two families. Tish’s mother, Sharon Rivers (Regina King) has a way of showing her feelings through a series of facial expressions that would scare off most but then speaks in the most kind and soft voice that would make most melt. Tish’s father, Joseph Rivers (Coleman Domingo) is funny and supportive. Their story is heart felt and is worthy of anger directed at a tiresome racial problem that makes no sense. The saddest part, is we are still experiencing racism at the highest level and still we struggle to rise above it, tell our stories and suffer in hopes the problem ends before the world perishes. Hate is a terrible thing and we could achieve so much more without it. I enjoyed If Beale Street Could Talk, I just think it was a little over marketed.  Despite the appearance of a low budget the performances were quite believable, the story has much more to offer so Check it Out!

[If Beale Street Could Talk is Oscar nominated for Best Supporting Actress, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Original Score]

 

THE DISASTER ARTIST (2017) – My rating: 8.5/10

The Disaster Artist is a biographical comedy-drama film produced and directed by James Franco. Written by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, the film is based on Greg Sestero and Tom Bissell’s non-fiction book of the same name and chronicles the making of Tommy Wiseau’s 2003 cult film “The Room”, which was considered by many, one of the worst movies ever made.  In my opinion, The Disaster Artist is one of the most bizarrely good films I’ve seen in a long, long time.  While it was entertaining, it was strange and if you’ve never heard of “The Room” your curiosity will be peaked to the nth degree.

In 1998 while living in San Francisco, 19-year old aspiring actor Greg Sestero (Dave Franco) meets a mysterious man named Tommy Wiseau (James Franco) in his acting classes with instructor Jean Shelton (Melanie Griffith).  After Wiseau attempts to perform a scene from Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire, the performance is ripped apart by Shelton. Greg becomes infatuated by Wiseau’s fearlessness on stage and wants to learn from Wiseau. Over the coming months, Greg and Wiseau form a strong, bizarre-like friendship. Eventually, on Wiseau’s suggestion and dime, Greg uproots from his mother, Mrs. Sestero’s (Megan Mullally) home to Wiseau’s apartment in Los Angeles to give their acting careers more of a chance.

After a few weeks, Greg signs with Iris Burton (Sharon Stone), one of the top young talent agents at that time. Wiseau, on the other hand, faces rejection from agencies, casting directors, and Hollywood insiders. During this time, Greg develops a relationship with Amber (Alison Brie), whom he meets at a nightclub. Wiseau begins growing jealous and temperamental, feeling dejected and hopeless and ready to return to San Francisco. Greg’s auditions also dry up. He shares his frustrations with Wiseau, wishing that he could simply make a movie to supply himself with a role. Wiseau takes this suggestion literally.

Over the next three years, Wiseau writes The Room, and presents it to Greg. Despite recognizing its incoherence, Greg insists to Wiseau that the script is great. Wiseau offers him the role of Mark, along with an associate producer credit. Greg reluctantly accepts. They rent out Birns & Sawyer, a production house in North Hollywood. Wiseau insists on buying all of the production equipment himself, as well as insisting that the film be shot on 35mm film and HD Digital simultaneously. The employees of Birns & Sawyer introduce Wiseau to Raphael Smadja (Paul Scheer) and Sandy Schklair (Seth Rogen), who work as his cinematographer and script supervisor, respectively. Schklair, however, essentially performs all the director responsibilities for Wiseau. Production initially starts out smooth, but Wiseau grows increasingly narcissistic and demanding. He verbally lashes out at crew members, repeatedly forgets his lines, shows up late nearly every day, and refuses to supply his crew with basic needs such as drinking water. This culminates in Carolyn Minnott (Jacki Weaver), who also plays Claudette, fainting from exhaustion.

The crew grows more resentful of Wiseau, with many questioning his behavior despite an endless supply of money that nobody knows the source of. During prep for a sex scene, Wiseau humiliates Juliette Danielle, who plays Lisa, by pointing out how “disgusting” her body acne is in front of the entire crew. Smadja reaches his limit, and Wiseau briefly fires him. Having filmed near-constant behind-the-scenes footage, Wiseau reveals that he knows everybody hates him, and believes that nobody, including Greg, is interested in seeing his vision through. One afternoon, Greg and Amber happen upon Malcolm in the Middle star Bryan Cranston, who invites the bearded Greg to fill in for a small lumberjack part in a Malcolm episode currently shooting. Greg begs Wiseau to postpone shooting his beard-free scenes by a day to accommodate Cranston’s opportunity, but Wiseau refuses, disillusioning Greg even further and causing Amber to split up with him. On the last day of shooting, Greg finally calls Wiseau out for being entitled and selfish throughout the course of their relationship, and questioning his age, background, and source of income. They get into a brief fight and then do not see each other for eight months.

The Disaster Artist was chosen by the National Board of Review as one of the top ten films of 2017, as well as two received nominations from the 75th Golden Globe Awards: Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy and Best Actor – Musical or Comedy for James Franco.  The Bazaar thing about The Disaster Artist is it’s a really good movie about the relationship between two real people who’s lives were interesting enough to make Franco’s movie a hit. It was their actual life story that sold The disaster Artist not the actual story of The Room.  The mystery surrounding Wiseau is still what intrigues people — Franco does an excellent job of showing what a disaster The Room is both in it’s production and it’s story, which is why it still remains “one of the worst movies made”.  I was memorized from the very beginning.  I thought the ending was brilliant with just the right amount of information to keep me guessing.  No one knows the answers to Wiseau’s source of income or his age or where he’s from however he continues to make movies — all bad!  The Disaster Artist is brilliant.  Check it out!

[The Disaster Artist is Oscar nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay]

 

NOW YOU SEE ME 2 (2016) – My rating: 8.5/10

I thought the first “Now You See Me” was clever and it was but the sequel has more substance and is even more entertaining. It’s just as clever plus they explain how most of the tricks are done, which is nice to know. The same crew is back with the exception of Isla Fisher who played Henley Reeves, the only female member of the Four Horsemen. Isla was replaced by Lizzy Caplan as Lula May, the new Illusionist.  The rest of the crew consists of Woody Harrelson as Merritt McKinney, Jesse Eisenberg as J. Daniel Atlas and Dave Franco as Jack Wilder.  Also back is their handler, FBI agent Dylan Rhodes (Mark Ruffalo) and Morgan Freeman as Thaddeus Bradley, an ex-magician who, for thirty years, has made money by revealing the secrets behind other magicians’ tricks.  Thaddeus was arrested by Dylan in the original movie and appears as an inmate in the sequel.  Mark seeks revenge as he blames Thaddeus for the death of his father, Lionel Shrike, who was also a magician.   The sequel starts out one year after the team goes into hiding from the FBI.  Upon further instructions from the Eye, who is the secret society of magicians they’ve been recruited by, their new mission is to expose corrupt businessman Owen Case (Ben Lamb), whose new software secretly steals data on its users for Case’s benefit.  This assignment starts the Four Horsemen’s new adventures and makes for a pretty good sequel.  Once again, Michael Cain does an excellent job as Arthur Tressler, the businessman who the Horsemen bankrupted in the original film.   I enjoyed the movie and found it to be entertaining.  I thought it was clever and well though out.  I understand another sequel is in the works, slated to open in 2017.  I takes a lot to come up with the tricks and plots that can hold your attention as the “Now You See Me” series has.  Kudos to the writers.