Review: "Girls Trip"

You'll never look at a grapefruit the same way again...

Girls Trip, the first truly gut-busting comedy of 2017, is a fabulous showcase for its four dynamite leading ladies. Comparisons will no doubt be made between this and fellow ensemble hit Bridesmaids but the latter, enjoyable as it may be, seems merely sitcom-level vis a vis this picture. This is a raunchier, bolder and all-around more satisfying romp.

The film follows the "Flossy Posse" of college besties - Ryan (Regina Hall), Sasha (Queen Latifah), Lisa (Jada Pinkett Smith) and Dina (Tiffany Haddish) - as they reunite in New Orleans for the annual Essence Festival, where Ryan, a best-selling author, has been tapped to deliver a keynote address. Hilarious hijinks of course ensue as the foursome drink, dance, romance and get their wild sides back in action but the proceedings hit a number of serious notes too.

Ryan's friends see right through her phony marriage to retired football star Stewart (Mike Colter), who has been caught yet again hooking up with another woman (who, of course, happens to also be in New Orleans for the event, setting up an inevitable brawl). There's also plenty of tension bubbling beneath the surface between Ryan and Sasha, years ago on track for a joint business venture that fell through when Ryan went out on her own. Now, Sasha runs a trashy celebrity gossip blog that barely pays the bills.

Director Malcolm D. Lee and screenwriters Kenya Barris and Tracy Oliver pull off a commendable balancing act in delivering the raucous laughs while also hitting home on a more dramatic level.

All four stars are in prime form. Haddish all but owns the first half of the film with a side-splittingly funny performance that threatens to upstage the rest of the picture. But then it's Hall who really shines in the second half, as the proceedings take that more serious turn and Lee, Barris and Oliver tackle the topic of infidelity with great wisdom and nuance. Smith is terrific too as the divorced single mom most struggling to at last let loose. And we of course cannot forget Latifah, who, with some absinthe and a lamp, lands one of the film's funniest and most memorable moments.

Girls Trip isn't absolute perfection - there are a handful of gags and scenes that don't quite land - but still, as a vehicle that gives its four super-talented stars a rich opportunity to shine and make us laugh our asses off for two hours, it's well worth a look.

B+

Review: "Dunkirk"

For more than a week over the summer of 1940, toward the beginning of World War II, German forces trapped Allied troops - a mix of British, French, Belgian and Dutch - on the beaches of Dunkirk, France. Through naval and civilian vessels, more than 330,000 troops were safely evacuated.

Christopher Nolan's much-anticipated Dunkirk - his first picture since the polarizing Interstellar in 2014 - captures this event in spellbinding fashion. His film is a master class in cinematography, sound and film editing and, while not quite on the level of masterpieces like The Bridge on the River Kwai and Das Boot, is still among the finest World War II pictures to grace the screen.

The proceedings are captured from three perspectives, one on land, one at sea and one up in the air.

On land, you have Tommy (Fionn Whitehead), a young British private who escapes enemy fire on the streets of Dunkirk and flees to the beach, determined to climb aboard a boat and at last get home. Boat after boat is attacked, including an abandoned ship utilized by the enemies for target practice.

At sea, there is Mr. Dawson (Mark Rylance, far more compelling here than in his Oscar-winning Bridge of Spies turn), a kind and calm sailor on a mission with his son and a friend to assist in the evacuation. The trio encounter a battered solider (Cillian Murphy), the sole survivor of a U-Boat attack. Upon realizing the boat is en route to Dunkirk and not home, the soldier grows hostile, to tragic consequences.

Up in the air are a trio of pilots (among them Tom Hardy and Jack Lowden) determined to take down German planes and prevent the bombing of allied boats at Dunkirk.

Nolan does a superb job intertwining the three - though the proceedings are very much nonlinear, it's a far more accessible picture than the likes of Memento, Inception and Interstellar, which no doubt left some moviegoers feeling lost at sea.

While the acting is all-around terrific, particularly from Whitehead and Rylance, the lack of character development makes Dunkirk a marginally less emotionally involving film than some past war pictures. Still, that's a slight knock when the movie is so magnificent from a technical perspective. Kudos to Hoyte van Hoytema for his glorious photography, Lee Smith for tight, pitch-perfect film editing and the legendary Hans Zimmer for one of his most intoxicating scores to date.

Is Dunkirk the best Nolan picture? Truth be told, I do prefer both The Dark Knight and Insomnia. That said, it's still one hell of an achievement, a stirring, sweeping picture full of sequences guaranteed to go down as some of the year's best.

A-

2017 Oscar Nomination Predictions (Summer Edition)

Too early to start talking the 2017 Oscars? As if!

Heaps, no doubt, will change over the months to come, as a host of pictures, both big and small, flood theaters with awards season aspirations. There will be the Allieds and the Rules Don't Applys, the supposed surefire Oscar contenders that instead spectacularly go up in flames. There will also be the sleepers, like Hell or High Water and Hidden Figures, with surprise success in store, perhaps at the 11 o'clock hour. And there will be the heartbreakers, like Jackie and 20th Century Women, that don't quite triumph on Oscar nominations morning like they should.

This far out, nomination predictions, much as I have a blast putting them together, are very much a shot in the dark. Yes, a pocketful of contenders have already seen the light of day in theaters and sure, another handful have screened here and there. The vast majority, however, remain complete question marks.

The likes of Steven Spielberg's The Papers, Joe Wright's Darkest Hour and Paul Thomas Anderson's Phantom Thread, on paper at least, sound like knockouts, poised to feast on recognition come awards season. Of course, we won't know for some time if any of those three pictures will live up to such expectations.

Woody Allen, Darren Aronofsky, Kathryn Bigelow and Christopher Nolan, among other juggernaut filmmakers, all have films this year, while Oscar favorites including Daniel Day-Lewis, Judi Dench, Frances McDormand, Michael Shannon (yes, I totally consider him an Oscar fave after pulling not one but two nominations out of a hat) and, of course, Meryl Streep are gearing up to potentially barnstorm this awards season.

There are countless questions. Will Murder on the Orient Express flop or flourish? Can Get Out emerge a serious contender, despite Oscar aversion to horror and an early release date? Will Tom Hanks at last return to the Oscars after a series of snubs? What about Jake Gyllenhaal? And just what on earth is Mother! really all about?

Those inquiries and many more shall soon be answered. For now, let's take a rough stab at this. Below you will find my first Oscar nomination predictions of the year, ranked from most to least likely to be recognized. A handful of categories - Foreign Film, Documentary Feature, Original Song and the shorts - I don't feel confident at all forecasting this far out, so I'll hold off on those until the fall.

Of course, I wholeheartedly encourage you to comment with your own thoughts and predictions as well. This, no doubt, per usual, will be one hell of an awards season.

Here's to the 2017 Oscars!

Best Picture

1. Dunkirk
2. The Papers
3. Darkest Hour
4. Call Me By Your Name
5. Phantom Thread
6. The Current War
7. Detroit
8. Marshall
9. Breathe
   ---
10. Blade Runner 2049
11. Mother!
12. Wonder Wheel
13. The Big Sick
14. Victoria & Abdul
15. Get Out

Best Director

1. Steven Spielberg, The Papers
2. Joe Wright, Darkest Hour
3. Christopher Nolan, Dunkirk
4. Paul Thomas Anderson, Phantom Thread
5. Darren Aronofsky, Mother!
   ---
6. Kathryn Bigelow, Detroit
7. Denis Villenueve, Blade Runner 2049
8. Luca Guadagnino, Call Me By Your Name
9. Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, The Current War
10. Andy Serkis, Breathe

Best Lead Actor

1. Gary Oldman, Darkest Hour
2. Daniel Day-Lewis, Phantom Thread
3. Benedict Cumberbatch, The Current War
4. Andrew Garfield, Breathe
5. Chadwick Boseman, Marshall
   ---
6. Jake Gyllenhaal, Stronger
7. Tom Hanks, The Papers
8. Bryan Cranston, Last Flag Flying
9. Denzel Washington, Roman Israel, Esq.
10. Donald Sutherland, The Leisure Seeker

Best Lead Actress

1. Meryl Streep, The Papers
2. Judi Dench, Victoria & Abdul
3. Jennifer Lawrence, Mother!
4. Kate Winslet, Wonder Wheel
5. Jessica Chastain, Molly's Game
   ---
6. Frances McDormand, Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri
7. Claire Foy, Breathe
8. Emma Stone, Battle of the Sexes
9. Annette Bening, Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool
10. Glenn Close, The Wife

Best Supporting Actor

1. Michael Shannon, The Current War
2. Ben Mendelsohn, Darkest Hour
3. Sterling K. Brown, Marshall
4. Michael Stuhlbarg, Call Me By Your Name
5. Steve Carell, Last Flag Flying
   ---
6. Armie Hammer, Call Me By Your Name
7. Colin Farrell, Roman Israel, Esq.
8. Jason Mitchell, Mudbound
9. Willem Dafoe, The Florida Project
10. Ray Romano, The Big Sick

Best Supporting Actress

1. Melissa Leo, Novitiate
2. Kristin Scott-Thomas, Darkest Hour
3. Michelle Pfeiffer, Mother!
4. Holly Hunter, The Big Sick
5. Carrie Coon, The Papers
   ---
6. Katherine Waterston, The Current War
7. Lesley Manville, Phantom Thread
8. Kirsten Dunst, The Beguiled
9. Julianne Moore, Wonderstruck
10. Nicole Kidman, The Killing of a Sacred Deer

Best Original Screenplay

1. Anthony McCarten, Darkest Hour
2. Paul Thomas Anderson, Phantom Thread
3. Michael Mitnick, The Current War
4. Woody Allen, Wonder Wheel
5. Joel and Ethan Coen, Suburbicon
   ---
6. Emily V. Gordon and Kumail Nanjiani, The Big Sick
7. Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor, Downsizing
8. Efthymis Filippou and Yorgos Lanthimos, The Killing of a Sacred Deer
9. Jordan Peele, Get Out
10. Michael and Jacob Koskoff, Marshall

Best Adapted Screenplay

1. Liz Hannah and Josh Singer, The Papers
2. Walter Fasano, Luca Guardagnino and James Ivory, Call Me By Your Name
3. Richard Linklater and Darryl Ponicsan, Last Flag Flying
4. Lee Hall, Victoria & Abdul
5. Dee Rees and Virgil Williams, Mudbound
   ---
6. Sofia Coppola, The Beguiled
7. Aaron Sorkin, Molly's Game
8. Andrew Haigh, Lean on Pete
9. Ian McEwan, On Chesil Beach
10. Hampton Fancher and Michael Green, Blade Runner 2049

Best Animated Feature

1. Coco
2. The Breadwinner
3. Cars 3
4. Ferdinand
5. Despicable Me 3
   ---
6. The Lego Batman Movie
7. The Star
8. The Lego Ninjago
9. Captain Underpants
10. My Entire High School Sinking into the Sea

Best Cinematography

1. Roger Deakins, Blade Runner 2049
2. Hoyte Van Hoytema, Dunkirk
3. Barry Ackroyd, Detroit
4. Bruno Delbonnel, Darkest Hour
5. Robert Richardson, Breathe
   ---
6. Matthew Libatique, Mother!
7. Janusz Kaminski, The Papers
8. Sayombhu Mukdeeprom, Call Me By Your Name
9. Edward Lachmann, Wonderstruck
10. Phillippe Le Sourd, The Beguiled

Best Costume Design

1. Mark Bridges, Phantom Thread
2. Consolata Boyle, Victoria & Abdul
3. Jacqueline Durran, Darkest Hour
4. Stacey Battat, The Beguiled
5. Ruth E. Carter, Marshall
   ---
6. Ellen Miojnick, The Greatest Showman
7. Jacqueline Durran, Beauty and the Beast
8. Alexandra Byrne, Murder on the Orient Express
9. Michael Wikinson, The Current War
10. Lindy Hemming, Wonder Woman

Best Film Editing

1. Lee Smith, Dunkirk
2. Michael Kahn, The Papers
3. William Goldenberg and Harry Yoon, Detroit
4. Joe Walker, Blade Runner 2049
5. Dylan Tichenor, Phantom Thread
   ---
6. Valerio Bonelli, Darkest Hour
7. David Trachenberg, The Current War
8. Jonathan Amos and Paul Machliss, Baby Driver
9. Bob Ducsay, Star Wars: The Last Jedi
10. Andrew Weisblum, Mother!

Best Makeup & Hairstyling

1. Darkest Hour
2. Star Wars: The Last Jedi
3. Beauty and the Beast
   ---
4. The Greatest Showman
5. Murder on the Orient Express
6. The Current War
7. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
8. Wonderstruck
9. Logan
10. Mother!

Best Original Score

1. John Williams, The Papers
2. Hans Zimmer, Dunkirk
3. Dario Marianelli, Darkest Hour
4. Dustin O'Halloran, The Current War
5. Thomas Newman, Victoria & Abdul
   ---
6. Alexandre Desplat, The Shape of Water
7. Johann Johannsson, Blade Runner 2049
8. John Williams, Star Wars: The Last Jedi
9. Jonny Greenwood, Phantom Thread
10. Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, The Greatest Showman

Best Production Design

1. Sarah Greenwood, Darkest Hour
2. Dennis Gassner, Blade Runner 2049
3. Nathan Crowley, Dunkirk
4. Paul D. Austerberry, The Shape of Water
5. Mark Tildesley, Phantom Thread
   ---
6. Anne Ross, The Beguiled
7. Jan Roelfs, The Current War
8. Nathan Crowley, The Greatest Showman
9. Sarah Finley and Adam Squires, Victoria & Abdul
10. Philip Messina, Mother!

Best Sound Editing

1. Dunkirk
2. Star Wars: The Last Jedi
3. Blade Runner 2049
4. Detroit
5. Baby Driver
   ---
6. The Papers
7. The Current War
8. Spider-Man: Homecoming
9. Beauty and the Beast
10. Darkest Hour

Best Sound Mixing

1. Dunkirk
2. Star Wars: The Last Jedi
3. Blade Runner 2049
4. Detroit
5. The Papers
   ---
6. The Current War
7. Darkest Hour
8. Baby Driver
9. Phantom Thread
10. Coco

Best Visual Effects

1. Star Wars: The Last Jedi
2. Blade Runner 2049
3. Dunkirk
4. Beauty and the Beast
5. The Shape of Water
   ---
6. War for the Planet of the Apes
7. Wonder Woman
8. Spider-Man: Homecoming
9. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
10. Thor: Ragnarok

Review: "A Ghost Story"

Where is Oda Mae Brown when you need her?!

A Ghost Story, the latest picture from filmmaker David Lowery (Ain't Them Bodies Saints, Pete's Dragon) is a film both sensitive and standoffish. While the sadness in Casey Affleck's performance, even as he's covered from head to toe in a white sheet, is palpable, the proceedings are meandering and ultimately left me cold and restless.

The film opens on C (Affleck), a recently deceased musician who, donning the white sheet, wanders out of the hospital to return home and console his mourning wife M (Rooney Mara). C observes as M goes through the grieving process and, after she moves out, finds himself watching over the house's future inhabitants, including a single mom and her children and a group of partygoers. All along, C is working, to negligible success, to retrieve a hand-written note M tucked inside the crack of a wall before her departure.

A Ghost Story looks and sounds phenomenal, with sumptuous cinematography by Andrew Droz Palermo and a stirring score from Daniel Hart. Their contributions and Affleck's curiously moving turn aside, however, the proceedings are overwhelmingly lethargic and lacking the profound, spiritual feeling no doubt intended. The picture also boasts one of the most ham-fisted monologues on humanity to ever grace the screen.

Not without its merits, A Ghost Story is a noble failure.

C+

Review: "The Big Sick"

At last, a Judd Apatow production that doesn't leave me restless!

Comic geniuses/writers Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon have joined Michael Showalter, the filmmaker behind last year's splendid Hello, My Name Is Doris, to deliver one of the finest romantic dramedies in recent years. The Big Sick plays like Don't Think Twice (the best comedy of 2016) meets Love Story (one of the most maudlin films of all-time)...and thankfully falls a lot closer to the former than the latter in quality.

Based on his real-life courtship with Gordon, Nanjiani portrays a Pakistan-born comic who meets and falls for Emily (Zoe Kazan) at one of his shows. Their relationship flourishes for some time, that is before his refusal to acknowledge the relationship to his traditional Muslim parents leaves Emily skeptical of her place in Kumail's future. She ends the relationship just before tragedy strikes - Emily falls ill, is hospitalized and soon placed into a medically induced coma.

Despite their split, Kumail is determined to remain by her side...and then Emily's parents (Holly Hunter and Ray Romano) show up. While her folks initially give Kumail a rather chilly reception, their mutual affection for and distress over Emily slowly but surely bring them together.

The Big Sick pulls off a remarkable balancing act, drawing big, well-earned laughs and tugging at the heartstrings in a way that isn't nauseatingly manipulative. The cast is all-around marvelous - Nanjiani and Kazan make for an enchanting and convincing team; this is perhaps Hunter's best performance since Living Out Loud in 1998 (keep an eye on this four-time nominee during Oscar season); and Romano has never, ever been this good. Also, all of the actors portraying Nanjiani's family are dead-on perfection.

Even if this proves one hell of a year at the cinema, The Big Sick will undoubtedly go down as one of the finest of 2017.

A