Thumbnails Jul 19

by Tony Medley

Maiden (10/10): Runtime 93 minutes. PG. If this isn’t the best movie of the year, it’s close. A documentary that tells the story of Tracy Edwards putting together a crew consisting entirely of women to compete in the 1989 Whitbread Round the World Race, it’s told entirely without narration. Edwards and her crew and some of the skippers of her competing ships tell the story themselves. Not only did she have to find a boat (a 58-footer named “Maiden”), she had to finance the entire thing. Here was a young woman, totally without experience of doing such an endeavor, plunging in and doing it all on the strength of her character. She had to put the crew together (there aren’t a lot of experienced female sailors), buy a boat, refurbish it, raise the financing, and be the boss, all herculean tasks, especially for one who had no experience for even one of those tasks. What makes this truly remarkable is Tracy’s amazing foresight. She even had a movie camera along so the scenes we see are actually what happened.

Wild Rose (9/10): Runtime 101 minutes. R. Highlighted by wonderful music, Jessie Buckley gives a boffo performance as a Glasgow country singer who longs for Nashville, but it’s a far more complex and nuanced tale. After only one minute, I turned to my assistant and said, “I love this movie!” And I never changed my opinion.

Framing John Delorean (9/10): Runtime 119 minutes. NR. A fascinating tale of ambition and hubris, this is how Delorean tried to be the new Henry Ford told with archival films, interviews with people involved, and also with scripted scenes with Alec Baldwin playing DeLorean. Even though it all happened in the late 20^th Century, it still has a twist you don’t see coming.

Rocketman (7/10): Runtime 121 minutes. R. There’s a lot of music in this, a lot of drugs, and a lot of gay sex. It tells that a young, fearful piano wunderkind, Reginald Dwight is unloved and uncared for by his frigidly cold parents. Then almost like a butterfly turning into a caterpillar, Reggie metamorphoses into the monster drug addict, alcoholic rock and roll superstar, Elton John (Taron Egerton, in an Oscar®-quality performance). This is not just “warts and all,” it’s almost all warts. The entire movie shows John as a whining, despicable, ungovernable prima donna begging for love and throwing fits when he doesn’t get it. The last 28 years of his life when he was drug and alcohol free and remarkably prolific are ignored. The main criticism of last year’s Bohemian Rhapsody by many was that it whitewashed a story that was darker than what was presented onscreen. To give Rocketman credit, it does not pull its punches.

Pavarotti (7/10): Runtime 114 minutes. PG-13. Director Ron Howard's whitewashed version of the life of the Il Divo is entertaining enough, but it would have been better had it told the whole story, the negative with the positive. There is some music, but not too much to bother those who don’t appreciate opera.

David Crosby: Remember My Name (7/10): Runtime 92 minutes.NR. This is a disjointed telling of Folk Rock Guitarist David Crosby’s story by himself through interviews and archival films. It covers his infatuation with Joni Mitchell, his horrible addiction to drugs, and pretty much all of his life from the ‘60s to today. Missing is music, although he talks about it a lot. I’m not sure why a documentary about a musician (Crosby wrote, sang, and played the guitar) would not feature some of the songs that musician wrote and performed. It is a glaring omission from a film that is interesting, but can’t hold a candle to Echo in the Valley.

Designated Survivor (3/10): This Netflix series had two good years, but a new showrunner has taken over and imposed his social values on the characters, grossly depreciating the series which had heretofore been refreshingly populist. Include me out.

Recommended reading: Past Tense by Lee Child; Redemption by David Baldacci.