Based on Ian McEwan’s (Atonement) novella by the same name, director Dominic Cooke proves that just because you have flint and tinder doesn’t always mean that you can make fire with his memorable and poignant, yet sometimes underwhelming and often slow On Chesil Beach. Not only did Cooke have McEwan’s novel to work with, but the author wrote the screenplay himself. Now, I’m not a huge fan of comparing the book to the movie in my reviews (most of the time, as in the case of this one, it’s because I haven’t read the book), but I have read a couple of reviews that say that the movie did not do the book justice, that the final scenes of the film weren’t even in the book, and that even what McEwan’s main novel points were changed or not flushed out. But since I liked the movie, as did most critics and other moviegoers (68% and 94%, respectively, on Rotten Tomatoes), I’m willing to forget the omissions mentioned explicitly in the unfavorable reviews on Roger Ebert and Richard Roeper’s websites. Nevertheless, I felt a relatable component of this 1962 English set movie to 2018. The relatable component could be applicable in many specific situations in physically romantic relationships between two people.
Category Archives: 2018
Tully (2018)
Tully. Wow. Way to toy with me, Jason Reitman (Up In the Air, Juno). I will have a spoilers section for this movie, but I will let you know when it happens. This hit me with an emotional punch. And I say that tongue-in-cheek because I did not find this movie all that emotional. Reitman has a way of writing and directing his stories so that you are wholly invested and don’t need to keep your tissues nearby. Instead, he tells his stories in a way that gets you interested from the get-go, creating characters who you wrote for and then hitting you with a gut punch when you least expect it. Ultimately, this results in his movies staying with you long after most movies you’ve seen have been forgotten. In Tully, he reunites with Charlize Theron (Mad Max: Fury Road, A Little Trip to Heaven) when the two team up for the fantastic Young Adult. I wouldn’t say that the Academy has shut out Theron (certainly not in the way that Jake Gyllenhaal has), but to have just two Academy Award nominations (Monster, North Country) is, if nothing else, a little surprising. I wonder if her performance in this film will be enough to land the coveted acting prize, especially with an April release. But she carried this movie in a couple of directions, held together by her evenness and Reitman’s adherence to the story when it felt like things were untangling.
You Were Never Really Here (2018)
I’m conflicted. Lynne Ramsay’s (Morvern Callar, We Need to Talk About Kevin) You Were Never Really Here is not a great movie. Yet it received an 88% on Rotten Tomatoes and four stars on Roger Ebert’s website. A few times during my viewing, I wanted to say aloud, “This movie sucks,” but, of course, that is something I would not do. But you can imagine how surprised I was when the movie received applause after its conclusion. I was flabbergasted, but I was in an art theatre (this was the only place it was showing). It had been a good year and a half (Arrival) since the audience had last clapped after a movie. So, I decided to read a little about this movie and see what I missed that others saw. First, Joaquin Phoenix’s performance (Gladiator, Walk the Line) was excellent. He was so even and heavy as a down and outgun for hire suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) from what he witnessed while serving in the military and from suffering from events of his childhood he was never able to process.