David Mackenzie’s (Spread, Asylum) 2016 surprise is a movie you’ll like if you go in with minimal expectations. You might be disappointed if you think it will be your typical bank robbery thriller. You might be disappointed if you think it will be full of suspense. If you are interested in a simple character-driven story with a little more than meets the initial eye, you might enjoy Hell or High Water. It’s a bit more quirky than you might think. If you expect a massive bank caper drama, this isn’t it. Mackenzie tries to take a different angle with this movie, adding humor, recklessness, and interesting side characters to a story, primarily a bank heist film. And while this movie has a 98% fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes, this doesn’t mean that most reviewers are scoring it a 9.8/10. Instead, it means that 49 out of 50 give this movie a positive review. While it is an interesting film (and the first one of 2016 I have watched twice), it is no longer a Best Picture candidate. I know there was talk that it might sneak into the race. I do not know how it got nominated for Best Picture, whereas a movie like Sully did not. While Hell or Hgh Water is a decent movie, I think many people (including myself) expected it to be far more significant than it was.
Category Archives: 2016
Paterson (2016)
Adam Driver (The Last Duel, Ferrari) hasn’t been the most endearing character early in his career. It’s not entirely his fault, though; Jim Jarmusch’s (Broken Flowers, Coffee and Cigarettes) has given me a new appreciation for him. The first movies I saw starring Driver were movies I abhorred (This Is Where I Leave You, While We’re Young), and my reason for disliking these so much wasn’t because of him but because of the characters he portrayed. Even in movies like Silence and Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens, I was not overly invested in his characters. He annoyed me more in Star Wars than anything else. He played second fiddle to Andrew Garfield in Silence, a movie in which his more talented counterpart completely overshadowed Driver. Paterson has opened my eyes to his depth as an actor, and, really, in just the fifth movie that I’ve seen him in (I do not recall his performance at all in Inside Llewyn Davis, Lincoln, or Midnight Special), he proves to be relatable to and not someone who I find to be annoying.
Hidden Figures (2016)
I get knocked a little bit when I talk to my friends about Hidden Figures. The Ted Melfi (St. Vincent) directed movie based on the untold story of Katherine G. Johnson (Taraji P. Henson – Hustle & Flow, Four Brothers), Dorothy Vaughan (Octavia Spencer – The Help, Snowpierecer), and Mary Jackson (Janelle Monáe – Moonlight, Made in America) as brilliant African-American women who were hired by NASA and who served as the brains behind the launch of astronaut John Glenn into orbit, a stunning achievement that restored the nation’s confidence, turned around the Space Race and galvanized the world. When I rip on the movie a bit, it is not because I think it is not good, but because it’s just a little too predictable and too PG for me. While I enjoy and recognize a movie based on a true story, I appreciate a darker, edgier movie. When I say a movie is too Disney for me, it has nothing to do with Disney. It concerns a movie being too toned down for my jaded self to appreciate. And, unfortunately, that’s my feeling on Hidden Figures.
Fences (2016)
We all know about Alonzo Harris (Training Day). Most of us know about Frank Lucas (American Gangster). Some of us even know Tobin Frost (Safe House). Add Troy Maxson to that list of vile characters portrayed by Denzel Washington. Okay, so the character he portrays in Fences (a movie he also directed) isn’t as bad as those depicted in the above films. He’s a different kind of evil. There is some good in Troy. He means well. But he is a complete hypocrite. He talks about doing right by others, providing for his family, and teaching them the importance of right over wrong. But in the end, Troy does only things that fill his massive ego. And in doing so, he hurts everyone who has ever cared for him.
Patriots Day (2016)
Too soon? Money grabber? These are two fair questions about the timing of Peter Berg’s (Deepwater Horizon, Lone Survivor) 2016 Patriots Day. The movie is based on the April 15, 2013, Boston City Marathon bombing, killing three people and wounding hundreds of others. It might seem too soon for a movie studio to be capitalizing on the tragic events of that day. For many, the event is still fresh in their minds. When I saw the trailer for this movie for the first time, I tended to agree. But after seeing this movie, I have changed my mind and instead will go with the mindset that if you’re going to make a movie out of a tragic event such as the Boston City Marathon bombing, you better get it right. And I’ll be the first to say that Berg and all those associated with this movie did get this right. It was a respectful movie that looked at the incident from various angles.