The Arrival (2016)

We have us a contender.  I’m not sure if this will take the spot for the best film of the year (Moonlight) but it’s really close.  This is a new landmark in science fiction film making.  Director Denis Villeneuve just crafted one darkly beautiful and emotionally exquisite drama.  Amy Adams, giving us another powerful performance, plays a linguist brought on board to communicate with an alien species that has arrived to Earth.  Why are they there?  Are they invading or are they here for some other reason?   Jeremy Renner and Forest Whitaker costar and give equally solid performances.   What I especially loved about this film was the creature design and their circle-pictograph language.  I hope this film gets a lot of love come Oscar time.  Grade: A

Westworld (Season 1)

A re-imagining of the 1973 film by Michael Crichton, this HBO series pulls you in with a great concept and many exciting characters, some of them are human and some of them are not.  What if you could go to the old West and pretend to be an outlaw, gun down innocent bystanders, rob a bank, sleep with a prostitute in an old time saloon and then go home without any retribution?  That’s what this vacation spot provides, an escape if you will (if you can afford it) to go back in time and live a different life.   Yes, they might be robots, but what if they’re alive?  Does pretending to be a villain actually damage your moral being?   And what if you’re the robot?  Are you doomed to follow a program?   Can a robot have free will?   There is a lot to celebrate about this new series.  Creators Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joey gather a fantastic team.  Anthony Hopkins plays the master mind and “God” like designer of the park and its robots.  Jeffrey Wright is his assistant.  Evan Rachel Wood is a robot heroine programmed to be a victim.  James Marsden is her lover designed to fail.  Thandie Newton runs the brothel, who has memories of another past.    And then there’s Ed Harris in a role that lets him eat up the screen with villainy as the man in black on a mission to uncover the “real” game in the park.  The art design is excellent and the way they build these organic robots is about as cool as it gets.  Sign me up for Season 2, I can’t wait to see where else they plan to go.  Grade: A

Spoilers:  Damn it!  A friend spoiled the twist for me so I’ll never know if I would have figured it out or if I would have been blown away by the last episode.  I hate spoilers!   I have to say that I think the structure of the entire show was great and the reveal that Ed Harris and Jimmi Simpson are the same character is fantastic.  Robots don’t age people!  Duh.  I want to believe I would have figured it out but alas I’ll never know. Can they come up with another cool twist for season 2?  I hope so.

Home (2015)

I loved this fun, zany animated film about the friendship between an alien named Oh and a girl named Tip.  The Boov, purple blob beings, are on the run from a dangerous alien race called the Gorg.  To hide, they invade Earth and succeed at relocating every human into one place.  That’s except for Tip who is left behind with her cat named Pig.   Oh and Tip become outlaws and work together to reunite Tip with her mother.  Along the way, they learn the meaning of friendship.   Jim Parsons and Steve Martin provide their voices and it's fantastic how well they bring their characters to life.  The writing is hilarious and the action clever and exciting.   This is director Tim Johnson’s best film by far.  I say bring on a sequel.  Grade: A-

The Imitation Game (2014)

I finally got around to watching this Best Picture contender from last year.  Benedict Cumberbatch plays Alan Turing, the real life mathematician who works with other cryptologists to break the Nazi’s infamous Enigma machine.  He created the Turing machine to do it and in doing so helped usher in modern computing.  Unfortunately he was homosexual in a time where being so was not safe as this film demonstrates with great dramatic tension.  Cumberbatch is great in this and I loved the actors who played his team.  Overall a solid film that’s deserving a watch.  Grade: A-

Spoilers:  I’ve read that some of this film is just made up.  But films don’t have to be historically accurate they need to be good stories.  Or, one could suggest that writer Graham Moore (winner of the Academy award for Adapted Screenplay, by the way) could have made a story that was just as entertaining while being more accurate than what was produced.  It’s a very subjective concept, and one I’m not willing to delve into until I know more about the true story.   Life is complicated and yes, in film, you have to simplify it to make it fit the parameters of a screenplay.  No one should learn history from fiction, but alas many do. 

Raiders! The Story of the Greatest Fan Film Ever Made (2015)

Two friends since childhood get funding to complete their shot-to-shot remake of Raiders of the Lost Ark.  They’ve’ been making it every summer since they were kids (with a long hiatus in there after high school) and they now finally have the money and passion to film the last scene on their bucket list, the famous Nazi bomber fight scene between Indiana and the Nazi boxing mechanic.   Look, I used to make home videos too.  But what these kids did (and what their parents let them do) is unbelievable.  I envy them to be honest.  This documentary tells their story and shares scenes from their fan film.  What it must have been like to be one of their friends, conned into dressing up as a German solider or Egyptian and do what they said.  The best part of the film though for me isn’t really the movie they’re making but the ups and down of their friendship.  Kudos for keeping your flame alive, guys!   May this film inspire a generation of new film makers.  Grade: B+

Aparajito (1956)

The sequel to Pather Panchali, this second film in the Apu Trilogy starts off in the town of Varanasi where Apu’s family had gone to make a new start.  His father is working as a priest and his mother is working as maid.   Again their lives are turned upside down by tragedy and Apu and his mother move back into the country to her uncle.   The film continues to follow Apu all the way through college and his demanding mother wants him to return home.   This story wasn’t as poetic as the first one but it’s still a remarkable achievement in film.  The conflict between mother and son is unforgettable.   It’s hard for me to believe that I’ve watched two films in this trilogy so far.  At one time I thought I’d never see it because of its unavailability. Thank Criterion for making it possible for us to watch such amazing cinema.  Grade: A

Deadpool (2016)

The film all fan boys are praising and dream of seeing get nominated for Best picture:  I finally saw it.  And it was a really fun and raunchy superhero blending of spoof and action.   Ryan Reynolds plays the title character, an assassin set on getting revenge for the underground organization that turned him into a gross looking superhero freak.   Morena Baccarin plays the love of his life, who he abandons because he wants to protect her.  Reynolds is born to play this role and he is on fire with comic timing and anti-hero charm.  I wouldn’t say it’s the greatest superhero film of all time or anything, but it is an enjoyable rated-R experience.   My favorite bit had to do with Dead pool’s old and blind roommate.   With its tongue and cheek humor and explosive action, this is one all Superhero fans should check out.  Grade: B+