Movie Review: The Dig

 

Note: This film received a limited theatrical release earlier this year and is now available on Netflix. 

Michael's Movie Grade: B+

A completely engrossing British film based off a real archeological dig. 

This is not a fast moving or action filled movie, yet it never lets go of your attention. It took a little bit to get truly into this movie, but as it went on I found myself getting more an more into it. Rather than simply telling the story of this great archeological find, this movie mostly functions as a in depth character study. This serves as not only a study of the main characters but the supporting characters as well and some of those supporting characters are just as interesting as the main ones. As well as the one big story, there are also multiple supporting stories happening that revolve around the characters themselves. With a lesser film this could have worked against the whole. Yet each story comes together perfectly and instead of distracting from the main story, actually enhances it. It is because of these smaller stories that the characters and there dedication to this project feel real to us, and therefore this smaller stories make us care about the larger story. In fact there were times when I wished more time was spent with the subplots so that they could have been a bit more developed. The acting is top notch. The chemistry between Ralph Fiennes and Carey Mulligan is simply fantastic and Lily James steals every scene she is in. 

Movie Review: Rebecca

 

Michael's Movie Grade: D

As a massive Hitchcock fan, I knew this new film would not compare to Alfred Hitchcock's 1940 masterpiece of a movie version of the same novel. However that film is so ingrained in my mind, that I found not comparing the two to be a very difficult undertaking. Still if I take this movie as its own thing, it is honestly rather bland. 

This movie has a major fault that simply nothing can overcome and this is that the film is strangely emotionless. There is not one scene that hit the emotional notes it was trying for. While to say this adaption does not have the same amount of suspense as the Alfred Hitchcock classic is a no brainer (he is the master of suspense after all), but this film has no suspense at all. Rebecca is a story that thrives on suspense, mystery and an other-worldly feeling, none of which is present here. While this film is not unfaithful to its source material, it tells the story in such a bland going through the motions way that the entire atmosphere is gone. The lack of emotion is also hurt by the lack of chemistry between our two leads. There is no feeling of romance between the two and this is especially evident in the early scenes that focus on their romance, which are quite frankly really boring. As they are presented her, the characters by themselves are not very interesting, but together they are even more boring. Even the music score (by the usually reliable Clint Mansell) feels like it is going through the motions. 

On the bright side this movie does look quite pretty and Kristin Scott Thomas' performance stands out.

I recommend skipping this movie and watching the 1940 Alfred Hitchcock version or reading the great novel instead.   

-Michael J. Ruhland 

Movie Review: The Old Guard

Michael's Movie Grade: B

A highly enjoyable but flawed Netflix action movie.

This film centers around a team that can heal themselves and use their powers for good. The two main characters of the group (Charlize Theron, Kiki Lane) are easily the most interesting. Andy (Charlize Theron) while not the most developed action movie hero is full of that coolness that attracts us to such characters. Much of this is due to the sheer charisma Theron brings to the role. If Andy brings this movie its coolness than Nile (Kiki Lane) is the character that brings the film it humanity. As the new recruit and the one who is learning (along with us) what she is capable of and the responsibility that brings, she is the one we relate and feel the most for. The character is a very real and human person that unlike the rest of the team wears her humanity on her sleeve. This type of character is the type that can fully pull us into a fantasy world like this and make us believe it and she does a wonderful job of this. On the other hand the rest of the team is rather bland and uninteresting. They really only have a few little traits that don't make full and believable personalities or very interesting ones. Whenever the movie focuses on one of these characters, it feels like it comes to a complete halt. The actors do their best with what they are given but there is no way to make the rest of the team interesting. Of course this is something most of us are familiar with when it comes to superhero movies. There is never enough time in a single movie to make a whole team of characters interesting. The filmmakers have to give the stories focus to only a couple or one leaving the others very underdeveloped (Avengers films avoid this fault by having the character already established before teaming up).

This is an action movie and the action is excellent. This is the fast paced, violent (but never offputtingly so) and intense action that fans of these types of films love. The story itself is often fair standard but effective. There is nothing that we haven't seen before story-wise, but that doesn't stop it from being involving, fun and occasionally thought provoking. True you often know where this film is heading but it is still well told despite that.

This is nothing groundbreaking, but it gives its audiences just what they want from a movie like this and if you like action films, chances are you'll enjoy this one.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Movie Review: The Half of It

Michael's Movie Grade: C+

This Netflix romantic comedy falls quite short of what it is trying to be but the chemistry between the two main stars and some good humor make this work.

This is a rare romantic comedy where a nonromantic friendship is treated as just as important to the plot as the romance and is frankly a lot more interesting. The story has Ellie (Leah Lewis) writing love letters for her friend Paul (Daniel Diemer), only to fall for the girl he has a crush on. Whenever either is with their crush, Aster (Alexxis Lemire), the film comes to a screeching halt. Neither has much of a chemistry with her and this makes these scenes very bland and kinda boring. There are plenty of people who will applaud this movie for having a possible lesbian love story, but regardless of intentions it is still rather poorly done. However what works extremely well here is the friendship between Ellie and Paul. This is the saving grace for this movie and overcomes many of the film's faults. There is a true sweetness to this relationship. This is not a friendship that you ever thought would happen and if it did you would assume they would have little to talk about, yet it grows into something completely real and beautiful. With so many films favoring a beautiful romance over a beautiful friendship, this gave the movie a strong appeal to me. I have had deep friendships that have meant the world to me and it seems strange that these beautiful relationships hardly get their due in movies. There are even scenes between the two of them that can be described as much more than lovely.

This is a romantic comedy so of course there has to be comedy. While some of this comedy does fall very flat, the comedy that works is delightful and certainly brightens up the film.

Despite being in many ways an unusual romantic comedy, this movie does fall into many of the clichés. This is especially true concerning dialogue and many of the side characters personalities. The narration at the beginning almost turned me off feeling much too forced and like what I have heard in other movies many times. The love interest is as bland and uninteresting of a character as can be, spouting off cliché lines like we are supposed to view them as beautiful or deep. The bullies are certainly the worst part. They have no personality and spout off cliché bully lines that have been in movies for decades. What makes them worse is that the story would have worked just as well without them or their clumsy dialogue.   

This is a very faulted movie, yet what works does really work.

-Michael J. Ruhland 

Movie Review: Extraction

Michael's Movie Grade: C

The style outshines the substance in this enjoyable but forgettable Netflix movie.

What keeps the bland story from falling flat is that the main two characters are pretty likable. Tyler Rake (as if we are going to call him anything but Chris Hemsworth) doesn't have much to his personality, but he is simply quite cool thanks to Chris Hemsworth's natural charm. He may not be a character who film buffs could discuss to much length or one that especially stands out among the great action hero characters, but the point is we like him and root for him. Ovi (Rudhraksh Jaiswal) provides us with the movie's strongest emotional center and even if the story is slight and cliché, I couldn't help but feel sorry for this poor kid. Helping out is that Hemsworth and Jaiswal have excellent chemistry together.

 The action scenes are for the most part very good. They are fast paced, violent and all together fun. They are well shot and staged and truly give action fans all they could want from this type of a movie. The climactic action scene is excellent and quite intense and action fans will love it.

However the well done action scenes and good performance can't help this movie overcome its most problematic fault. That is that it really drags in the middle. As much as I enjoyed how this movie started and how it ended, I admit my mind kind of drifted towards the middle as I got a little bored as the film began to feel too repetitive and its faults became more apparent. Luckily the film rectified this as it went along by topping what it had done before with a fantastic climax. Perhaps this film could have worked better at an hour and a half instead of the near two hour running time it has. The story was pretty minor and the more repetitive and bland parts could have been worked out with the simplistic story still making sense.

This movie tries to be a John Wick film, but it simply falls quite short of that goal. Still with all its faults it is worth watching for the charisma of the two main actors and a really fun climatic action scene.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Movie Review: Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese

Michael's Movie Grade: A+

Review: Though it may not be what he is most associated with Martin Scorsese is possibly the greatest director of rock and roll movies period. Films like The Last Waltz and Shine a Light are pure rock and roll heaven. With this his new movie on Bob Dylan, one of the all time great figures in rock and roll had a lot to live up to. Does it live up to the impossibly high expiations that it is so easy to set upon it? After watching the film the answer is an undeniable yes.

Of course in a rock and roll movie one of the most important factors is the music. Good thing that the music here is top notch Bob in every possible way. This film focuses on Bob's 1975 Rolling Thunder Tour, and from the many song performances here, there is no doubt at that time Bob was completely on the top of his game. Scorsese, understands something that many directors of rock and roll documentaries don't. We want to here the songs in full when watching one of this films. Too many music documentaries just play a short snippet of a song being performed and then cut to people talking about the music. Scorsese lets us watch Bob perform many songs in their entirety. This makes it a better movie in two ways. One is that we can understand what we are hearing the people say about the music better, because we get to experience the music in its whole. This makes what they are saying feel completely real instead of something abstract. The other reason is the simplest. This is great music and we like to hear it. We get to see and hear Bob perform such incredible songs as Hurricane, Mr. Tambourine Man, Knocking on Heaven's Door, Simple Twist of Fate, Just Like a Woman, Love Minus Zero/No Limit and Oh Sister. Each performance makes it obvious that Bob does not phone a single performance in. He puts his whole heart and soul into each song and watching these performances makes even a seasoned Bob Dylan fan feel like they are hearing each song for the first time. One of my favorite things about Bob Dylan's live performances is that he will do a song in a completely new way than it was heard on the album. An excellent example is used here as he does an electric rock and roll version of his early acoustic folk protest song, The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carrol. As well as his own songs we also get to hear Bob do a couple covers, including Peter La Farge's The Ballad of Ira Hays (best known as being sung by Johnny Cash) and Hank Williams' Your Cheating Heart. Not all of the musical highlights come from Bob though. A fantastic scene involves Joni Mitchell performing the fantastic song Coyote (she also performs this song in Scorsese's The Last Waltz). Also fantastic are performances that are not musical but just as incredible. These are when we get to see Alan Ginsburg perform his poetry on stage. He was not only a great poet but a very charismatic performer as well.

Only Martin Scorsese would open a documentary on one of the great figures of rock and roll with a clip from a 1895 George Melies film (anyone who has seen Hugo knows that Scorsese has somewhat of a fascination with Melies). This may seem out of place to one who doesn't give it much thought, but this clip shows in a way what is to come. Just as Melies used the magic of the movie camera to manipulate audiences and make them believe outright fantasies, Scorsese uses the music documentary for the same reason. This is not an outright 100% factual movie and that is part of the fun of it. Scorsese mixes the fantasy in with the fact in the same well Melies did during the early days of fictional cinema, and he does it with the same playfulness. If you can catch these fantasies, the film becomes that much more fun and you will finding yourself laughing out loud at various moments. There are even people being interviewed that are completely and utter fictional, as well as a few tall tales that one almost wishes were true.

This movie is an incredible experience and a must watch for any Dylan or Scorsese fan. How after watching this film, I wish I could have seen this tour. I have seen Bob live before but this would have been something truly different and special.

-Michael J. Ruhland