by Adam Riske My take on a half dozen holiday releases still in theaters, ranked least favorite to favorite. Assassin’s Creed – I’m not one...
by Adam Riske
My take on a half dozen holiday releases still in theaters, ranked least favorite to favorite.
Assassin’s Creed – I’m not one of those people who cross their fingers hoping video game movies are good. I’m in the camp that looks forward to them being kind of bad, especially during this part of the year ( "prestige" season). It’s comforting at this point because it’s a genre that delivers the “goods” (“bads” may be more appropriate) with consistency. So for the first 30 minutes of Assassin’s Creed, I was sitting in the theater thinking “people are being too hard on this,” but then I gear-shifted and fell comfortably into the consensus. The movie gets more and more nonsensical as it progresses but not in a fun way; more in a dull way where you can’t even enjoy the movie on its own terms. Michael Fassbender cares and that sustained me for a while plus some of the 15th century Spain action set-pieces are interesting to look at (it’s a neat visual, the way they introduce you into that setting each time Fassbender’s character enters the virtual reality) but a parade of characters where you barely know their names, let alone character motivations, ultimately make Assassin’s Creed a slog.
Passengers – Like Assassin’s Creed, Passengers is a movie that starts intriguingly but falls apart by the ending. At the beginning, the movie is interesting because you’re exploring this transport vessel along with Chris Pratt, so there’s a sense of discovery. Plus, the production design of this ship is really something; it’s the best thing in the movie. The movie then shifts gears and focuses on the Pratt-Jennifer Lawrence relationship and it suffers a bit for a number of reasons I can’t get into without spoilers. Let’s just say it is problematic and pretty sexist, too. A lot of it has to do with portraying its sole female character as less than equal to her male counterpart and being more important to service a man’s needs/be witness to his “greatness” than have her own agency. After playing such strong characters in the past in movies like Winter’s Bone, Joy or The Hunger Games, I'm surprised Jennifer Lawrence chose to play somewhat of a thinly realized damsel in distress. By the third act, Passengers has a choice to explore the icky moral quandary it sets itself up with head-on or cop out and finish with an arbitrary action climax. It chooses the latter and nets out as a bad movie because of it. The movie is almost worth seeing, though, for Andy Garcia’s role. It’s incredible how brief it is.
Why Him? – This movie made me laugh just enough to not dislike it. Why Him? comes from director John Hamburg, who’s a veteran of a handful of Ben Stiller comedies and who previously directed I Love You, Man. Coincidentally, I caught I Love You, Man on cable again recently and I still really enjoy that movie. Why Him? is not as good, and I think a reason why is because it’s more set-piece driven and less about character interaction with smart writing and funny people delivering those lines. I’m not trying to bag on James Franco or Bryan Cranston (I like both in general and both in Why Him?), but they don’t have any special chemistry to make the movie memorable. It’s fine and disposable. It feels like a lot of Judd Apatow productions from a few years ago, where there’s some raunchy behavior, a lot of sweetness but ultimately the movie is easy to forget. This is a movie made to fill out a DVD 4-pack.
Hidden Figures – A movie I liked but wanted to enjoy a lot more. Hidden Figures has an amazing story to tell made more exceptional because it tells a…well… hidden story from history that is fascinating and should have gotten the press it deserved at the time. What’s disappointing is that the film tells that story in a very movie-ish way. At times Hidden Figures feels inauthentic (more certain shots than sequences) – too sanitized and sermonizing, like something you would produce with the intention of showing to middle school students on “movie day” (it’s rated PG and that doesn’t work to its benefit). Some characters feel like types instead of people. “Lesson” is underlined a lot in this movie. The best sequences are the ones with Taraji P. Henson at work in Kevin Costner’s managed think tank, because it goes into the most detail about the work and skill involved in some of the missions. This is a movie that does NASA a lot better than Civil Rights in my humble opinion. The performances carried me through, but I’d be remiss to not admit that I think I’m giving this movie more of a pass than I should because I’m sympathetic to its subject matter. Hidden Figures may be a victim of expectations for me more than anything else. If this came out in January without a lot of buzz, it would probably feel less disappointing. This time of year is weird anyways. If it’s an Oscar hopeful and it’s not at least really good, it somehow feels like a frustration.
Fences –Denzel Washington would get my vote for Best Actor of the year because he’s terrific in Fences and it features THE MOST acting. Dude acts his face off in Fences (as well as Viola Davis, who is almost always great except for Suicide Squad…that movie takes down everything), and as a moviegoer who enjoys watching acting maybe more than any other facet of the medium, this was a real treat. I’ve heard criticism that Washington doesn’t “open up” the movie Fences so it still feels stage-bound, but I’m perfectly fine with that. I don’t get out to see live theater as much as I would like, so seeing something that’s more like a play was a unique experience for me which I enjoyed. If for no other reason, I appreciate Fences because it is my introduction to the writing of August Wilson (and probably is for a lot of people) and for that I feel fortunate. Fences is a tough movie, tougher than something like Manchester By the Sea imho, because it’s a much angrier movie and without all the gallows humor. It’s an experience that got under my skin, similar to how the Brad Pitt sequences in The Tree of Life are because they feel so authentic and suffocating. Despite the dialogue being poetic, the emotions and situations are messy and ugly, with lead characters that have the capacity to be much more than one single type.
A Monster Calls – This movie is a doozy and the reason I wanted to write this article, which is to shine a light on how good A Monster Calls is. I’m usually not one who’s easily taken in by creatures teaching children lessons in movies, but I found this movie so moving in a few ways. First, it’s a beautiful portrait about the bond between mothers and their children. Second, it deals with grief in an interesting way, because it’s about how disease affects the people around the afflicted. It’s a brave movie that acknowledges that our feelings and thoughts in these times can be murky and surprising, to the point where we feel we need to punish ourselves for daring to think them. The movie is also an amazing representation of how difficult it is to talk about grief and the isolation that comes from that (e.g. we don’t want to upset the person who is sick, we feel our feelings shouldn’t have equal weight to their well-being, we don’t know what to say, etc.) and how we need movies/stories/parables to help process how we’re feeling and find some measure of peace. I might be sounding so hyper-specific that it makes no sense to you reading this, but that’s just a residual effect of how much this movie hit me personally. A Monster Calls certainly would have been in my top 5 of 2016 had I seen it in time and it’s my exploding heart movie of the year. It really bums me out it’s not doing better in theaters due to how crowded the marketplace is right now. Go see it.
Have you seen any of these films? What were your thoughts?
Assassin’s Creed – I’m not one of those people who cross their fingers hoping video game movies are good. I’m in the camp that looks forward to them being kind of bad, especially during this part of the year ( "prestige" season). It’s comforting at this point because it’s a genre that delivers the “goods” (“bads” may be more appropriate) with consistency. So for the first 30 minutes of Assassin’s Creed, I was sitting in the theater thinking “people are being too hard on this,” but then I gear-shifted and fell comfortably into the consensus. The movie gets more and more nonsensical as it progresses but not in a fun way; more in a dull way where you can’t even enjoy the movie on its own terms. Michael Fassbender cares and that sustained me for a while plus some of the 15th century Spain action set-pieces are interesting to look at (it’s a neat visual, the way they introduce you into that setting each time Fassbender’s character enters the virtual reality) but a parade of characters where you barely know their names, let alone character motivations, ultimately make Assassin’s Creed a slog.
Why Him? – This movie made me laugh just enough to not dislike it. Why Him? comes from director John Hamburg, who’s a veteran of a handful of Ben Stiller comedies and who previously directed I Love You, Man. Coincidentally, I caught I Love You, Man on cable again recently and I still really enjoy that movie. Why Him? is not as good, and I think a reason why is because it’s more set-piece driven and less about character interaction with smart writing and funny people delivering those lines. I’m not trying to bag on James Franco or Bryan Cranston (I like both in general and both in Why Him?), but they don’t have any special chemistry to make the movie memorable. It’s fine and disposable. It feels like a lot of Judd Apatow productions from a few years ago, where there’s some raunchy behavior, a lot of sweetness but ultimately the movie is easy to forget. This is a movie made to fill out a DVD 4-pack.
Fences –Denzel Washington would get my vote for Best Actor of the year because he’s terrific in Fences and it features THE MOST acting. Dude acts his face off in Fences (as well as Viola Davis, who is almost always great except for Suicide Squad…that movie takes down everything), and as a moviegoer who enjoys watching acting maybe more than any other facet of the medium, this was a real treat. I’ve heard criticism that Washington doesn’t “open up” the movie Fences so it still feels stage-bound, but I’m perfectly fine with that. I don’t get out to see live theater as much as I would like, so seeing something that’s more like a play was a unique experience for me which I enjoyed. If for no other reason, I appreciate Fences because it is my introduction to the writing of August Wilson (and probably is for a lot of people) and for that I feel fortunate. Fences is a tough movie, tougher than something like Manchester By the Sea imho, because it’s a much angrier movie and without all the gallows humor. It’s an experience that got under my skin, similar to how the Brad Pitt sequences in The Tree of Life are because they feel so authentic and suffocating. Despite the dialogue being poetic, the emotions and situations are messy and ugly, with lead characters that have the capacity to be much more than one single type.
Have you seen any of these films? What were your thoughts?
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