Thumbnails Mar 19

by Tony Medley

Joseph Pulitzer: Voice of the People (9/10): Everybody has heard of the Pulitzer Prize but how many know anything about the man for whom the prize is named? Joseph Pulitzer came to the United States in 1864 as an impoverished 17-year-old from Hungary, his fare paid by Massachusetts military recruiters who were seeking soldiers for the Civil War. Eventually he bought New York’s World newspaper and made it the most influential paper in the city, if not the country. This documentary is filled with fascinating tidbits about the man who continued to infuriate the powerful (like President Teddy Roosevelt, who thought he should be jailed for libel, claiming, “…it is high national duty to bring to justice this villifier of the American people”) despite being blind the last 20 years of his life. Opens March 8.

Greta (8/10) Runtime 98 minutes: This is a brilliantly made “Psycho”-like film. Neil Jordan directs with pace and tension that never lets up. The cinematography (Seamus McGarvey) is not only award-quality; it’s as good as I’ve seen; in fact, it makes the film what it is. And the acting by Chloë Grace Moretz and Isabell Huppert, is nonpareil. Even if, like me, you don’t like horror, this is worth seeing just to appreciate the incomparable filmmaking.

Serenity (7/10) Runtime 105 minutes, R: What is this, anyway? Noir? Thriller? Fantasy? Actually, it’s a bit of all three. Matthew McConaughey is the skipper of a small fishing boat on a picturesque island. He has an Ahab-like fixation on a big fish that he wants to catch. He’s got a girlfriend, Diane Lane, the purpose of whose existence is fuzzy, to say the least. He’s got an ex-wife, Anne Hathaway, in a surprisingly good performance for one of meager talent, who is married to brutal rich entrepreneur, Jason Clarke, who apparently beats Anne often. Anne wants Matthew to take Jason fishing and kill him. Jason is ambivalent until he learns that Jason is abusing Matthew’s son, whom we see in flashovers always working on a computer. This is an odd movie with twists and a surprising ending that you can see coming if you pay attention.

A Dog’s Way Home (5/10) Runtime 93 minutes, PG: If ever a film should have been animated it’s this one because the characters themselves are so cartoonish. The cinematography is very well done, as is the interaction of the dog with the other animals. But the characters are so artificial and the political correctness so repellent that I hesitate to recommend it. This is, without question, one of the most nauseatingly politically correct movies ever filmed. There are several couples in the movie. All are biracial. After a while the political lecturing becomes laughable.

The Upside (5/10) Runtime 125 minutes PG-13: Unfortunately for me, I saw The Intouchables and this film, directed by Neil Burger from a script by John Hartmere, doesn’t come close to the original. The only point seems to be that maybe a rich white guy and a poor black guy can get along, a counterpoint to “Green Book” that seems to stand for the proposition that a rich (or at least successful) black man and a white hoodlum can get along. That’s where Hollywood is these days. Nicole Kidman is also in the film and I can’t figure out why. Her character adds nothing and it’s puzzling why an Oscar® winning actress would sign on for a role like this. In my judgment the best performance in the movie was by Julianna Margulies who plays a woman with whom Cranston becomes involved by exchanging letters. Their meeting is extremely well done. Margulies’ performance is Oscar®-quality, but that’s as close to Oscar® as this movie’s going to get.

Cold Pursuit (4/10) Runtime 118 minutes, R.  After seeing Liam Neeson’s The Commuter (2018), which was the latest in his many follow-ups to his 2008 megahit Taken, I suggested that he had clearly run out of material in this genre and he proceed down a new path. Unfortunately, he did not take my advice and he has continued with this imbecilic vehicle which is filled with cold-blooded killings, one after the other. This is rubbish that is no different from the John Wick drivel that glorifies senseless violence. They minimize the tragic finality of death and desensitize viewers to violent murder. I repeat my advice to Liam from last year. Give these things up. They just keep getting worse.