Mike Goes To Movies

Sound of Metal (2020) TLDR: Easily one of the best films I have seen in a long while. Grounded by an absolutely stellar performance by Riz Ahmed (and co-star, Olivia Cooke), Darius Marder's Sound of Metal is a moving and deeply-empathetic look into the journey and struggle to find peace with one's self through the lens of a musician who loses his hearing.  Have no doubt, if you are not yet familiar with the names Riz Ahmed and Olivia Cooke you are about to be. Both actors - Ahmed in particular who leads the film - are transcendent in Darius Marder's Sound of Metal. Ahmed plays Ruben, a heavy metal drummer, in a duo group led by guitar/singer, Lou, played by Cooke. The two are as much a pair off-stage as they are on it. It is clear from early on that they are all that the other really has in life and they are content to travel across the country in their RV together playing shows and making ends meet as best they can. However, all goes awry when Ruben - who batters his eardr...

The Before Trilogy TLDR: As a whole, and in each of its separate parts, Richard Linklater's 'Before Trilogy' is the cinematic experience in its absolute finest form. The story of Celine and Jesse speaks to the core of the human experience - surprising joys, inevitable obstacles and eventual pains, and, most importantly, the mystery and intrigue of love - and it does it in an affecting way that, almost unlike any other film, is simultaneously theatrical and also remarkably raw and realistic.  "It's just, people have these romantic projections they put on everything. That's not based on any kind of reality." - Jesse, Before Sunrise Even more than the multitudes of other incredible introspective bits of wisdom and philosophy that Celine and Jesse converse in across the three movies, this quote perhaps sums up the trilogy best of all. What are romance movies other than certain individuals' projections of what romance - often, idealized romance - is. Most o...

 The Place Beyond The Pines (2012) TLDR: Ambitious in its scope, structure and themes, The Place Beyond The Pines is a compelling film with much to admire, but, at times, it falls under its own lofty weight due to plot holes, inconsistent pacing and a much weaker third act. Derek Cianfrance's The Place Beyond The Pines shoots for the moon but gets lost floating somewhere in its orbit. The film, divided into three distinct acts, is more concerned with exploring compelling themes of fate, fatherhood and consequence and, less, about telling a well-plotted story with consistent characters and progressions. It is an undoubtedly ambitious endeavour and one that, at many points, succeeds in drawing out the emotion it very clearly wants from its audience. However, the film suffers from a habit of cutting corners - consistently jumping, in jarring ways, from Point A to Point B in order to get to the plot points and twists in its story required for later emotional fallout. It is not very sub...

Jojo Rabbit (2019) There are three movies in particular that I was dying to see at this year's TIFF  but that I had to unfortunately miss out on. However, It looks like this weekend I am going to have the pleasure of knocking all three off of my list (partially because I am heading out of town for work this week for the month and will become more limited with my time to go to the theatre and write reviews). The first of these films is Jojo Rabbit - the quirkily black-comedy from acclaimed writer/director (and newfound icon of New Zealand), Taika Waititi. Waititi is absolutely one of my favourite new-age directors; he has that rare talent of being able to infuse his films with his now-distinct irreverent and absurd sense of humour with true heart. And, in that, Jojo Rabbit is not only no different, but he seems to have perfected that hard-to-obtain formula of high class comedy and drama. For those that have seen the trailer/read up on it, you know the offbeat setup for the f...

TIFF: Waves (2019) Waves was the one film this year that, going in, I really knew nothing about other than it was about two young couples growing up in the southern US. Generally speaking, I would say that I often have a decent amount of info going into a movie and I found that it was an overly nice surprise having no preconceived notions or expectations as I watched Waves. Writer/director, Trey Edwards Shults, had really only had one notable prior film, It Comes at Night, but I have not actually seen it myself. And so, when I saw Waves this past Tuesday evening it was very much an open canvass for me. Due to surprising events that happen in the film that very much dictate its second half I cannot add much more to the brief summary I've given above. I can say that the film is about a young African American family living in Florida who deal with many contemporary issues that other similar families have to contend with across the US and abroad. The dad and step-mom are played b...

The Last Black Man in San Francisco (2019) Another day at the movies in 2019, another day seeing a contender for best film of the year. The Last Black Man in San Francisco is that rare film that successfully combines the seasoned refinement of a Hollywood feature (though, remarkably, this is director/writer, Joe's Talbot, and writer/star, Jimmie Fail's, feature debuts) with the trappings of unique, genre-bending arthouse cinema. The film follows Jimmie Fails (loosely based on the actor's life) as he contends with the immeasurable change that has overcome his hometown of San Francisco throughout the past twenty-plus years. Though it is not explicitly referenced, gentrification (and industrial modernization to an extent) seems to be the crucible of Jimmie's angst and frustration. In particular, is the house that Jimmie, and his family before him, grew up in. The house, which Jimmie's grandfather built with his two hands, is now the home of an affluent elderly wh...

Pain & Gain (2013) Even imperfect as it is, Pain & Gain is definitely one of Michael Bay's more successful recent endeavours. To be fair, he has really only had one other non-Transformers film that he has directed since 2007 so there's that to consider... Pain & Gain with its effective mix of action and dark humour takes Bay back to the ilk of Bad Boys, one of his more beloved franchises. This film, remarkably based on a true story, is a classic tale of the quest for the American Dream. Well, in a way, at least. This iteration of the classic fable centres on three incompetent and rather repellent gym rats who attempt a kidnapping of a rich client of the gym that they work at. The job is less than a success though, causing the thugs to use their combined intellect and scheming to save the job and their own selves. If not for the darkly black humour underlying the film, this would be quite the despicable and violent story. However, Bay wisely banks in on the ine...

Magnolia (1999) Now THAT is a film that leaves an impression - not only for its bat-shit crazy ending but also for its mesmerizingly operatic entirety. An interwoven epic following the trials and tribulations of an ensemble of characters in the San Fernando Valley, Magnolia is a film that could only have been crafted by the deft hand of Paul Thomas Anderson. Equally amazing, the film boasts powerhouse performances by pretty much every one of its extensive cast making its close to three-hour run-time no challenge to get through.   Magnolia is the type of film that long essays can easily be written about. Though there are some more direct connections between the characters one learns of as the film progresses, it is in the indirect, yet underlying, threads that connect the cast of characters together and the film itself as a whole. These are all individuals who are very much still struggling with their identity in the world. One major theme is the prolonged impact that negative...

Everest (2015) I'm not going to lie, my expectations for Everest sat quite nicely at ground zero (around where I would imagine base camp to be) - I thought this was simply going to be yet another action-packed disaster-esque kind of film. And so, it was that I was pleasantly surprised by the quite-grounded nature of the film that built its action and suspense not through crazy special-effects action set-pieces but through character drama and the realistic threats that one would encounter summiting the highest peak on this planet. It may be that part of my enjoyment of this film stemmed from my own recent experience as a few years ago I hiked up a mountain and got a small taste of the dismantling effect that cold and oxygen deprivation has on a body. No, what I climbed is nowhere close to the feat of Everest, but a lot of what is depicted in this film regarding preparation (both mental and physical) were things that our guides talked to us about on our own climb. As mentioned,...

Mid90s (2018) I really wanted to like this film, I really did. It is not a bad film by any means, but it becomes apparent about halfway through that its tone and direction is fairly misguided. At times, the film plays out like the grungy faux-doc films of the 90's/early-00's by Larry Clark and Harmony Korine that centred on youth cultures. Director/writer, Jonah Hill's, inspiration by these predecessors is quite apparent from the relatively no-name cast, the grainy film style, the improvised dialogue sequences, and the small cameo by Korine himself. However, it is, perhaps, Hill's Hollywood sensibilities that restrain him from taking the film to that next (and difficult) level that the earlier films, Kids, Bully and Gumbo, were able to reach. As one would surmise, Mid90s is about the youth of the 1990s, specifically here, a boy on the cusp of teenagehood, Stevie (Sunny Suljic), who tries to escape his violent brother (Lucas Hedges) and often non-present mother (Ka...

Maudie (2016) Maudie is a moving, intimate and expertly-made biopic by Irish director, Aisling Walsh, about Nova Scotian folk-painter, Maudie Lewis. The film takes place in the 1950/60's in rural Nova Scotia (that's east coast Canada) that follows the difficult life of Maudie, here incredibly portrayed by Sally Hawkins. Maudie's hardships began early on as she developed rheumatoid arthritis at a very young age, affecting her mobility and use of her hands. As a female with this kind of disability in a mid-1950's rural community, Maudie was stripped of much of her autonomy and often looked down upon by her community. However, she was resilient, constantly pushing back against her physical and social obstacles and fought to gain work as a house-maid for a local fish peddler, Everett Lewis (Ethan Hawke). As the film shows, Everett was not an easy man himself and though he and Maudie ultimately married and had a loving relationship he was also equally hard on her througho...

Burning (2018) Burning is the kind of masterful film that stays with you long after it ends - its deep, contemplative layers slowly seep into your subconsciousness, imparting you with new meaning and emotion that you may not have picked up during the actual viewing. Normally, I am the type of filmgoer who will wait a decent amount of time before watching a film again, regardless of the film. However,  Burning is that rare exception that made me desire to rewatch it very shortly after finishing it so that I could once again observe the beauty of the shots, the compelling story, and try to, once again, uncover the treasures hidden with. The film is somewhat difficult to discuss as its seemingly straightforward plot becomes much less so as the film proceeds, and to talk about it would be to ruin some critical developments and twists. This may not be all that surprising because the film, by famed Korean director, Lee Chang-dong, is loosely adapted from Haruki Murakami's short sto...

Columbus (2017) One likely would not jump to architecture as a universal topic for one to build a film around, however, first-time director/writer Kogonada's Columbus is an utterly beautiful and contemplative film that most everyone should be able to connect with in one way or another. The film, taking place in "the Midwest Mecca of Architecture", Columbus, centres on two seemingly-different individuals - one, a recent high school graduate, working at a library while also taking care of her recovering mother, and, two, an older man who has come into town to visit his father who is in the hospital and whom he has not spoken to in over a year. The girl, Casey (Haley Lu Richardson), is an architecture enthusiast; she even has a long and detailed list of her favourite buildings in the city. The man, Jin (John Cho), states that he has no affinity for architecture, though his father is a professor and leading mind on the subject, and so Jin has a deep attachment for the s...

Clean, Shaven (1993) Clean, Shaven is not an easy film and it is likely not for everyone. It is a deeply unsettling story that tells of the life of a man suffering from schizophrenia. The film is also remarkable in that it strays far from the mold of a normal movie-going experience by presenting its story through the subjective lens of its troubled subject. Whereas a usual film follows a generally nonpartisan viewpoint - the audience possessing information not in full receipt of all of the characters - here, the audience sees the world through the mind - eyes and ears - of a man suffering from a serious mental illness. The implementation of this is in a sensory overlord such as the man, Peter Winter, played by Peter Greene, must contend with in his everyday life. Audio is spiked, distorted and overlapped, with sources both real and imagined constantly being thrown at Peter and at the audience. The visuals similarly cannot not be fully trusted as Peter suffers ongoing hallucinati...

Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989) At this point, director, Steven Soderbergh, is a well-worn name in the industry and he has had a long career making successful and highly acclaimed films through a variety of genres. However, in 1989, Soderbergh was just another aspiring unknown, and one who was about to surprise the world with his directorial debut, Sex, Lies, and Videotape . The film would go on to jump-start the independent film movement prominent through the 1990's. It would also cement Soderbergh as a true, young talent; the film itself won Cannes' coveted Palme d'Or in '89, as well, it netted Soderbergh multiple award nominations for the film's script. Sex, Lies, and Videotape is an intricate and mature film about the inter-relations of four individuals and their sexual lives - desires, repressions and liasons. The film centres upon one married couple, the wife's younger sister and a friend of the husband who has recently returned to town. The catalys...