Apple TV+ continues its string of movies that should be better than they are with the Jennifer Lawrence-led (mother!, Silver Linings Playbook) Causeway. Like many of its predecessors (Swan Song, Palmer, Cherry, Greyhound, The Tragedy of Macbeth, Finch, On the Rocks), first-time director Lila Neugebauer’s Causeway benefited from a successful marketing campaign, only to leave viewers to wonder what the original hype was about. However, I’d be remiss if I left off CODA, the Best Picture winner of 2021. The streaming service has potential as a movie distributor but has laid its fair share of duds. Causeway is no exception. It’s a mediocre movie at best.
Category Archives: Brian Tyree Henry
If Beale Street Could Talk (2018)
Adapted from a 1974 James Baldwin novel of the same name, Barry Jenkins’ If Beale Street Could Talk follow-up to his 2016 Oscar winner for Best Picture Moonlight is a soft tale of two African American lovers set in 1970’s Harlem. After the critical success of Moonlight, Jenkins more or less could have picked whatever movie he wanted to do next and received the green light and the funding. If anything, I am glad that he only waited about a year to begin his next project. If Beale Street Could Talk is a fine little film. As good as it is, I expect that the novel was even better.
Widows (2018)
After watching Widows, I can very confidently say that if you team up director Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave, Shame) and writer Gillian Flynn (Gone Girl, HBO’s Sharp Objects), I’m going to have my butt in a theater opening weekend. I’ve heard about Widows for months and saw the trailer the day before I saw the movie. And I still haven’t seen the whole trailer. I only needed to watch the first half of it to know that it was a movie I wanted to see immediately. McQueen, who was narrowly beaten out for Best Director (Alfonso Cuarón – Gravity), hardly seemed upset when, half an hour later, his 12 Years a Slave won topped Gravity (and others) for Best Picture of 2013. He’s been off the grid for the last five years (save for a few shorts), but he is back with a movie that might be better than any of his previous three masterpieces (12 Years a Slave, Shame, Hunger Strike). The only thing missing is an appearance by Michael Fassbender, but you won’t even notice.
White Boy Rick (2018)
White Boy Rick, the most hyped movie of September 2018, Yann Demange (’71), is one of the most disappointing movies of the year. The narrative could be better. The character development is almost non-existent. Matthew McConaughey (Mud, Free State of Jones) seemed as interested in attempting to earn a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award nomination as he was trying to advance the story (I don’t blame him, as much as I do the script and the director). Newcomer Richie Merritt, who stars as the story’s lead, does his job, but the story is so askew that it leaves the audience not caring about what happens to him. The movie tries to make you feel sympathetic for its lead, but it just doesn’t work. It’s not Merritt’s fault. It wouldn’t have worked with anybody with Demange as the director. Not even the super-talented McConaughey could rescue this movie from mediocrity.
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