The Man Who Invented Christmas
Shortly after a recent string of
flops, author Charles Dickens is inspired to write a new Christmas story
to celebrate an often overlooked Holiday. With only six weeks to write,
illustrate, and publish the work it seems an impossible and
herculean task that our hero tackles through personal debt, a battle
with the demons of his past, and observations of the world around him.
That’s the story in a nutshell, but
this piece goes much further into exploring the manic energy of a
creative force and the inner fires that propel him. Dicken’s work is a
phenomenon throughout the world, the characters brought to life
with a sense of deep exploration into the dual nature of man and the
dual natures of Charles himself. We see how his creative mania affects
the people around him, how he is affected by a history of familial debt,
and that much of his kindness and charity covers
a secret darkness he’s long held back in the form of Scrooge.
Scrooge is brought to life in a way
that we rarely see- the character stripped raw and bare and taking shape
in the mind of Dickens. Christopher Plummer brings life to this
sardonic, cold, and often cruel image of a man who walks ill-formed
through the night and only takes pleasure from Dicken’s suffering- it’s
Scrooge who plays spirit to the window of Dickens soul in this
examination of the creative process.
8 out of 10 and a strong recommend.
COCO
The latest from Disney/PIXAR is a fun
family film. Celebrating Mexico’s Day of the Dead, Coco is the story of
a young boy’s journey to the underworld in order to find and receive a
family blessing that will allow him to return to the land
of the living. Aided by a stray dog he’d begun feeding, Miguel has a
passion for music and a family that despises the art itself. Torn
between the direction of his heart’s passion and devotion to a family he
loves; Miguel’s journey forces him to weigh his
responsibilities.
The story is fairly paint by numbers,
with a series of cliché tropes and a few interesting characters. Often
endearing and genuinely tender, the film doesn’t seem pressed to
reinvent the wheel with unfamiliar twists or tricks. All of these
things prove unnecessary once we see the beautiful palate of colors and
art on display. Fluroescent greens, blues, yellows, and orange take a
sharp contrast with the darkness of the Underworld. Sometimes simple is
often better when you have such a lush tapestry
to work with. Robert Lopez’s signature musical sound comes through in
most of the songs and are beautifully sung by the cast.
7.5 out of 10, highly recommend.
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
The latest film from Martin McDonagh
is a darkly look at grief, resentment, incompetence, and regret. Frances
McDormand is Mildred Hayes, a grief-stricken mother frustrated with the
lack of progress on her daughter’s murder investigation.
More starkly haunted by the sheer viciousness of the crime, Hayes is
inspired to rent three billboards outside her small town near the
location of her daughter’s murder. The billboards bear a message for the
local police, singling out popular small town Sheriff,
Bill Willoughby (Woody Harrelson). The two engage in a civil battle of
wills, exacerbated by Willoughby’s incompetent debuty Dixon (Sam
Rockwell).
This is definitely a mouthful of
movie and story-telling. Dialogue driven, there is just as much to
swallow between the lines as there are the lines themselves. McDormand
is simply excellent as the cold, shattered, and ultimately broken
woman who must cope with her grief, her regret, and her frustrations.
Harrelson, who could have easily been painted as an unsympathetic “good
ol’ boy” villain is endearing, frustrated, and torn apart by his
inability to catch the murderer. The two forces play
off each other well, neither one willing to give an inch and neither
one driven by any real animosity between them. There’s genuine affection
between the two characters, who were very likely friends before the
daughters’ murder.
But if you are looking for an
absolutely amazing performance with a truly complicated character, look
no further than Sam Rockwell’s Dixon. He is every bit the “Good ol’ Boy”
villain- an incompetent officer driven by shame, guilt, and a
devotion to his boss that borders on the psychopathic. This is a
violent “mama’s boy” who shouldn’t be one hundred feet near a badge and
everyone in this town knows it. Everyone but Sheriff Willoughby, who
sees only the best in Dixon and the true heart of
the man.
The real star of the film is
MgDonagh’s script, itself. A brilliantly written piece with so much
wound up in the words and those ever important bits of silence, a
certain meaning expressed behind words that mean something entirely
different,
and the implications that don’t always spell things out for the
audience. Some will walk away feeling the film ended in one way, others
will walk away finding something else entirely, and none of it is
“wrong” when all is said and done. Three Billboards is
often about our perceptions and the fact that, sometimes, the villain
isn’t always so obvious.
10 out of 10. MUST SEE!!!
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