Foxcatcher

Steve Carrell is John DuPont, the crazy DuPont heir who murdered wrestler Dave Schultz. Channing Tatum is Mark Schultz, Dave's brother and author of the book on which the movie is based. The casting here is very solid and Carrell, in particular, shines in his role. Unfortunately, the movie itself is a mess. There's so many factual distortions, changes, and flat-out creations that it's hard to take the movie seriously. And I don't mean stuff you'd only know if you knew the story intimately. I mean stuff like having the wrestlers in the movie (in 1988) watching a UFC fight from 1996. And then you get the bigger things - creating scenes with DuPont shooting a gun inside the gym, having Mark & Dave training together at Foxcatcher (they didn't), and a million other things. And, like the book, the movie suffers from too much Mark Schultz. It's essentially the story of him when it really needed to focus more on DuPont and Dave Schultz. In the end, this is a pretty good movie with some terrific performances but some really, really glaring issues, too. 7/10.

Whiplash

his is a movie full of great performances in search of a great movie to put them in. JK Simmons is Terence Fletcher, a ruthless, maniacal jazz instructor at the top music school in the country. Miles Teller is Andrew, his newest student. What follows is something of a rehash of An Officer and a Gentleman with Fletcher berating Andrew, throwing stuff at him, throwing gay insults at his classmates, and generally just being a jackass. Then there's a conflict and a resolution. The end. Oh yeah, along the way we get a throwaway diversion with the girl at the movie theater, some wasted scenes with Andrew's father, a "My music is as important as your sports" scene with Andrew's family, and a whole lot of drumming. Simmons here is off-the-charts. Incredibly great. Intense, angry, maniacal, instructive, the whole nine yards. Unfortunately, the movie itself is really just a rehash of stuff we've seen before, told in a not-particularly-unique way. It's a good movie but nowhere near the tour de force it's been hyped as. 7/10.

History of the Eagles

An official documentary on seminal rock band The Eagles. Not sure if this is the same thing as what ran on HBO/Showtime last year or not. Clocking in at just over 3 hours, this is pretty darn great. Every band member - past, present, former, etc - participates as well as managers and music execs. Because it's done by the band themselves, they don't go into a ton of detail on internal strife or controversy but every topic IS covered. Each membership change is discussed, all the major lawsuits and controversies are covered. LOTS of talk (and photos and film) of drug and alcohol usage. Lots of great discussion on the creation of various songs. Lots of great discussion on the music histories of each member. And tons of great archival footage of past interviews and concerts as well as home video footage. Truly a remarkable amount of that kind of stuff, quite frankly. And perhaps the best little tidbit - audio of an on-stage argument between Glenn Frey and Don Felder during their last-ever performance that features Frey telling Felder he's going to kill him after the concert. Seriously great stuff there. That's all in the first part of the doc. The second part covers the reunion in 1994 and subsequent albums and tours. Interesting tidbit: a reunion was planned before 1994 and all guys had agreed to it but Glenn Frey backed out. Didn't know that. Discussion of Don Felder's removal from the band. In general, most of the guys in the group come off pretty darn well in their interviews. Don Henley, who has a reputation of having a massive ego and being tough to work with, comes across here more as confident and not overbearing. Glenn Frey comes off the worst as he's the one telling the story of getting Don Felder involved in the reunion (Frey wanted Henley & Frey to make more money than the other three guys and Felder wasn't cool with that). It's obvious Frey has a very large ego and is much aware of his role within the Eagles and the music industry. On the flip side, Timothy B Schmit comes off as really humble and likable. He joined the band late and is still very much in the "Man, this is great!" mindset, loving what he's doing. Anyway, the whole documentary is really great and a must-see for fans of the band or rock in general. Great stuff. 9/10.

Please Subscribe

A friend asked me to watch this and, well, I did. I can't say I was impressed in any way. This is one of the laziest documentaries I've seen in a long, long time. The makers take what could be an interesting subject - "Youtubers" who make a living posting videos to Youtube - and do nothing with it. What we get are short 5-10 minute interviews with each person, a tiny bit of behind-the-scenes at how their videos are made and...that's it. The people profiled seem nice enough - Hannah Hart, in particular, seems pretty darn cool (though I suspect I'd find her "drunk chef" videos incredibly annoying) and SeaNanners seems pretty cool as well. But, again, nothing much is done with them other than the interviews. Then, in one interview, we get what is almost the documentary equivalent of one of those annoying Facebook clickbait articles. They put up a little screen that says they asked one guy some really personal question and show him not answering. Then another screen saying three weeks later he's willing to address it. Then he...doesn't. And at no time are we told the actual question. It's sort of implied that the question is along the lines of "ARE YOU TEH GAY???????" but never stated as such. It feels like a "We asked this guy a really personal question. You won't believe his shocking response" clickbait thing. There's some mention of a "Youtubers convention" but not much is shown of it. There's references, and a couple brief video clips, highlighting the fame some Youtubers achieve but, again, not much done with it. In the end, the whole thing just feels like one big missed opportunity. 5/10.

Mission to the Edge of Space

Mission to the Edge of Space - Documentary detailing Felix Baumgartner's famous skydive from 122,000 feet in 2012. This is a good documentary in the sense that you get a complete picture of all the preparation, the years of work, and so on that went into the jump. All the key players are interviewed and they all come across as likable and all of them seem to have really enjoyed their work on the project. That makes their interviews interesting as it's a story they obviously enjoy telling. There's lots of great, spectacular photography from Baumgartner's various jumps as well. Having said all that...this never quite rises to the level of greatness. Probably could have been a little shorter (125 minutes). Also, I was disappointed they never revealed the final tally for the cost of the mission. C'mon guys, that's something everybody wants to know! Still, if you're interested in the story, this is worth checking out. Hits right at the Tabedoza Line™ - 7/10.

Side note: I am apparently the only person on the planet who was not aware of this mission before it happened. I remember hearing about it afterward - since you pretty much couldn't avoid hearing about it - but not beforehand.

The Act of Killing

WTF. This is one of the most messed-up, surreal movies I've ever seen. On some level, I get these guys being matter-of-fact, even proud, of the killing they did way back when. But to agree to make a movie about it? And re-enact all the torturing? And so on? And then to do it in various genres, like a musical? With one of the guys running around in drag for 80% of the movie? Again...WTF. I can't say this was a good documentary but it was compelling. And interesting. But good? I dunno. The one guy coming to the crushing realization at the end of the movie as to the horrors he's committed was certainly something to see. I did find myself wondering the whole time, "How the heck did the filmmakers even get this setup in the first place?" Anyway, worth seeing. 8/10.

Focus

Will Smith is Nicky, an uber-accomplished thief and con man who runs a crime ring that targets major sporting events. Margot Robbie is Jess, a small-time criminal who tries to rob Nicky but ends up joining his team instead. What follows is 2 hours of pickpocketing (the scene of them in New Orleans ripping people off will probably terrify every tourist - the little bit with them stealing a camera lens is dead-on), capers, and double crosses. It's a fun time but...never quite gets there. This is a movie that's supposed to be style over substance, to be super-slick and super-cool and just isn't quite slick or cool enough. There's a couple things that strain believability (like the setup for one crime that simply would never happen) as well. And the pacing is a little off, with some scenes that simply move too slow or are too long. They probably could have chopped about 15 minutes off and improved the movie. The cast is great and it's certainly nice to stare at Margot Robbie in super-sexy outfits for 2 hours but it ends up being not quite enough. 6/10.