Cinema Cat

Us Directed by Jordan Peele Lupita Nyong’o Winston Duke Elisabeth Moss Here’s the thing about Jordan Peele ~ he’s so damn smart.   And he’s funny.   AND, he has something to say. You gotta love Jordan Peele.   If you never watched “ Key & Peele, ” find it now and watch it.   Right away.   That is some smart, funny, sketch comedy.   And it is thoughtful.   Good stuff.   Great.   Honestly. If you saw “ Get Out ,” written and directed by Jordan Peele, then, like me, you most likely felt so pleased for him and proud of him and happy to know him as much as a fan knows the subject of her admiration.   I’m pulling for this guy.   His success makes me happy. This was my mindset going into “Us.”   Oh boy!   Jordan Peele!   He’s made another scary movie!   I CAN’T WAIT to see it! So right there was my problem.   I sidestepped one of my own cardinal rules o...

Chadwick Boseman Michael B. Jordan Lupita Nyong’o Ryan Coogler, Director  Probably should have seen Black Panther before Wonder Woman .   Because there’s this one thing that a person can’t help thinking after  seeing Wonder Woman.   Let's just cut to it :   T’Challa ( Chadwick Boseman ) was a great king.   Loved him.   Pledged my allegiance.   Hated – no really! – hated to see him go.   But when they found him still alive after he took a brutal beating from Erik Killmonger ( Michael B. Jordan ); after Killmonger threw him over the cliff and he fell so far that he started to shrink in our vision before he hit the water below; after we KNEW he was dead; you’re not gonna have Nakia ( Lupita Nyong'o )challenge the new, evil King and throw his ass over the waterfall?   You’re not gonna have T’Challa’s queen-apparent rise to assume the throne? No really - you’re gonna have that ‘miracle’ t...

Frances McDormand Sam Rockwell Woody Harrelson Martin McDonagh, Writer/Director  In order to stay ‘with it,’ to be hep and all, I updated my invention – TheSound of Music syndrome – to the Avatar syndrome.  Here it is:  Sometimes a movie is so hyped that a several things happen.  First, said movie cannot live up to the hype, no matter how good it is.  Second, people cannot/will not say what they really think of that over-hyped movie for fear of seeming ignorant or uncool.  Third, a moviegoer’s soaring expectations can lead to disappointment. I discovered this phenomenon in 1965 with the huge letdown of The Sound of Music.  Anticipation ‘way too high!  I remember watching Julie Andrews grinning and twirling and singing to the sky, and thinking what the heck?!  How’d I get suckered into this? Not that The Sound of Music is bad.  It’s not!  It’s good.  It’s just not that good.  Come on...

    Murder on the Orient Express Kenneth Branagh, Director   Overheard during Previews of Coming Attractions:  “Well, I like Liam Neeson , but that looks stupid.” We feel ya, lady seated in the next row back.  We like Kenneth Branagh , and Johnny Depp , and Judi Dench , and Willem Dafoe , and Michelle Pfeiffer , and Penelope Cruz (well, sorta), and Josh Gad and Derek Jacobi …but this movie is stupid. OK.  Maybe we’re out of line to say such a thing about this lush production full of all these beautiful people.  There were at least a couple of noteworthy elements to this 70mm spectacle:  1. Branagh’s mesmerizing mustache and 2. that super cool avalanche. It probably is unjust to impugn a film when you’re not the intended audience.  And there was fair warning.  We knew going in that it was an Agatha Christie murder mystery; that Hercule Poirot would treat us like Perry Mason treated our mothers back in...

Human Flow Ai Weiwei, Director 5 0ut of 6 Ai Weiwei , artist and activist, made the film, Human Flow, to call attention to a humanitarian crisis across the globe – that of refugees.  He traveled to 23 countries documenting the plight of throngs of people – hundreds of thousands; millions – forced to flee their homelands because of the violence of war, religious persecution, drought, plague of disease and every other creator of misery known to man. We get the impression early on that Ai kept a written journal along with his video journal, and somewhere late in the process, maybe in post-production, the pages of the journal were torn from their binding and scattered in the wind.  He collected them all and reassembled them with little concern for chronology, context, or linear thinking.  He’s an artist , after all. His product is beautiful in so many aspects.  Breathtaking images of sunsets, seas, and the mesmerizin...

The Florida Project Willem Dafoe Brooklynn Prince Valeria Cotto Bria Vinaite Sean Baker, Director  Right out of the chute, The Florida Project thrusts us back into the free-wheeling summer vacations and that big-world-no-worries life that children lead.  Remember when school let out, and June, July, and August stretched to the horizon like Route 66 across New Mexico?  So we freely surrender to Sean Baker , the striking cotton candy colors of Florida, and these precocious kids’ point of view.  Moonee (Brooklynn Prince), Jancey (Valeria Cotto), and Scooty (Christopher Rivera) travel at will among the brightly-painted yet seedy residence motels just outside of – and galaxies away from  – Walt Disney World.  The kids’ shenanigans seem mostly child-like and harmless until a seeping realization forms in the periphery:  While this sense of freedom and unlimited time seem familiar, this is not a replay of the innocen...