If the new movie year began quietly with only ‘The Grudge’ opening on Jan. 3, the film business can’t stay static — which is why next week brings a batch of movies opening nationwide, a group marked by its diversity.
Four films arrive nationwide Jan. 10: Tiffany Haddish’s new comedy ‘Like a Boss,’ Kristen Stewart in the action-packed horror thriller ‘Underwater,’ alongside expansions of two awards-seeking entries. Sam Mendes’ WWI real-time thriller ‘1917’ is a risky proposition, focusing on grim events of a century ago with no stars. It’s received rapturous reviews in its Oscar-qualifying limited December opening. ‘Just Mercy,’ Michael B. Jordan’s very first production which also boasts ‘The Black Panther’ villain as its star, is a fiery assault on capital punishment through actual cases of flagrant injustice on Alabama’s notorious Death Row. It’s received the highest exit polls scores possible among both black and white audiences.
Indeed, both ‘1917’ and ‘Just Mercy’ have reasonable Oscar hopes. ‘1917’ is nominated for three Golden Globes on Sunday, including Best Picture and for Mendes Best Director. ‘Mercy’ looks to join the Oscar brigade with a Best Supporting Actor nomination for Jamie Foxx, a SAG nominee in that category with what is considered a career-best performance.
January also brings a new chapter in Robert Downey, Jr.’s storied career. A star since his teens, this magnetic actor who has had widely publicized ups and downs has ended his long run as the spark and dominant figure in Marvel’s amazing – and amazingly successful — movie universe. Now as both producer and star Downey brings not a Jordan-style bout of super seriousness to the table but bright escapism with his non-musical remake ‘Dolittle’ about the doctor who can talk to animals. Downey’s pet project opens Jan. 17 and co-stars not just his ‘Avengers’ mate Tom Holland but a Who’s Who of who’s good in movies right now, including Antonio Banderas, Emma Thompson, Rami Malek and Marion Cotillard.
Then comes ‘The Gentlemen’ on Jan. 24, Guy Ritchie’s return to London’s gangster milieu where he started so many years ago with ‘Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels,’ which stars Matthew McConaughey, Hugh Grant, Henry Golding, Colin Farrell and Charlie Hunnam. ‘Gentlemen’ will be competing that weekend with ‘Run,’ a thriller, the youth-centric horror outing ‘The Turning’ where Mackenzie Davis (‘Jojo Rabbit’) and ‘Stranger Things’ star Finn Wolfhard team up for a contemporary adaptation of the Henry James ghost story ‘The Turn of the Screw.’ There’s also another war film on the 24th — ‘The Last Full Measure’ which unlike ‘1917’ is a true story about an incredibly heroic Air Force Vietnam War-era soldier eligible for the Medal of Honor and the 30 years later conspiracy that nearly denied him the posthumous honor.
The month wraps with two more nationwide releases: Blake Lively and Jude Law in ‘The Rhythm Section,’ a mystery thriller, and ‘Gretel and Hansel,’ a reworking of the brothers’ Grimm horror story with Sophia Lillis, the redheaded ‘It’ star.
HOMICIDAL HILARITY IN NEW ZEALAND?
For ‘The Brokenwood Mysteries, Series 6,’ (premieres January 6; Mondays, four episodes shown weekly, AcornTV) the New Zealand scenery is as lush as ever, the country tunes twanging on Detective Senior Sargent Mike Shepard’s car radio nonstop. But the lightheartedness that’s distinguished this murder mystery series seems to have brushed with awful realities, like last March’s horrendous racist attack on a New Zealand mosque that left 49 dead. How else to watch Series 6’s first case where prime suspects are homophobic, racist bigots with murder in their hearts? Brokenwood’s sly sense of absurdity remains and the second episode has fun highlighting the many besotted suspects in the murder of a charismatic bestselling murder mystery writer. Our famous author Jack Rudd wrote ‘Knife in the Back,’ an all too apt title for his end on the staircase at a local book club where he’s discovered with, you know, a knife in his back. By Episode 3, the fun returns as an animal rights activist dies on the first day of duck hunting season. Please, no sitting duck jokes! The final 90-minute adventure goes to the Big House where Brokenwood has a Women’s Prison that must be investigated for a suspicious suicide. Droll Fern Sutherland as Detective Kristen Simms continues as a series standout.
NEW DVDs:
MERYL, MERRILY MERYL Easily the best reason to continue with HBO’s sensational ‘Big Little Lies: The Complete Second Season’ (DVD, 7 episodes, HBO, Not Rated) is the arrival in our uppercrust California beach burb of Meryl Streep’s avenging angel, the hardly distraught but continually malicious mother of the late Perry Wright (Alexander Skarsgård).
Perry, dashing though he was, was murdered at the end of the First Season by vigilantes (we know who they are!) for domestic violence and multiple rapes. The death verdict was accidental but momma knows better. Like every villain Streep’s Mary Louise Wright is convinced of the righteousness of her cause. There’s also a de-lish comeuppance in the bankrupt catastrophe of Laura Dern’s Renata Klein. Isn’t it always better to watch the suffering of others – who might karmically deserve it – than to suffer ourselves? Bonus: ‘The Lies Revealed: A Conversation with the Cast.’
U HAVE TO C 2 BELIEVE For sheer escapism and WIZARD OF OZ wonder, Hollywood’s Technicolor Forties films are so incredibly lush, so other worldly in their ‘naturalness,’ so deliriously imaginative, they exist like some magical kingdom in an empire solely devoted to making dreams come alive. The 1944 ‘Cobra Woman’ (Blu-ray, KL Studio Classics, Not Rated) stands as the defining moment of its star-crossed heroine Maria Montez.
Born in the Dominican Republic, Montez died tragically of a heart attack in her bathtub in 1951. She was 39. Driven by steely ambition that mirrors the similarly driven Madonna and Joan Crawford, Montez was easily her own best creation. She became a Movie Star, she acted like a MOVIE STAR because she was born, destined, anointed to be a MOVIE STAR. In ‘Cobra Woman’ Montez is yet again an ‘exotic’ figure, gowned by Vera West in some of the most striking creations imaginable, especially a silver number that will never, could never be topped as she faces the fearsome snake. Here Montez is not only the evil, nasty, demanding ‘Cobra’ Queen but her much nicer twin as well! With her thickly-accented English Montez was not so much an actress as a PRESENCE! ‘She was the first Method actress,’ we hear in Phillipa Berry’s wonderfully perceptive audio commentary, because she believed in who she was playing. If she was a Queen on the screen, she must be treated like a Queen on the set – by her director, the fantastic Robert Siodmak (‘The Spiral Staircase,’ ‘The Killers’), and by her frequent costars Jon Hall and Sabu (‘Thief of Bagdad’). Montez’s other films with the supporting duo include the equally exotic adventures, ‘Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves’ and ‘Arabian Nights.’ The company here was strangely doomed. Both Montez and Sabu died too young of heart attacks. West, blackmailed, and Hall, aged out of roles, would later commit suicide.
TINY TERROR From Ernest B. Schoedsack and Merian C. Cooper, the innovative duo behind two of the greatest Thirties films, ‘King Kong’ and ‘The Most Dangerous Game,’ comes the crazee, sci-fi Technicolor ‘Doctor Cyclops’ (Blu-ray, KL Studio Classics, Not Rated). A mad physicist (is there any other kind in Hollywood horror movies?) shrinks his unhappy enemies down to one-fifth their size (Oscar-nominated Special Effects). A brand-new 4K Master makes this 1940 horror classic pop. Poor Dr. Thorkel (Albert Dekker) – he’s lost his mind thanks to radium poisoning in his jungle laboratory and though half-blind has shrunk those fearless explorers who had helpfully arrived to take him to civilization. Instead, they find themselves tiny – and trapped! Film historian Richard Harland Smith’s audio commentary completes the bonus along with ‘Trailer from Hell’ with Jesus Trevino.
TWO BY A EURO MASTER Markus Imhoof is hardly a recognizable brand name yet the Swiss filmmaker has two of his most acclaimed works newly released. His Oscar-nominated 1981 Swiss drama ‘The Boat Is Full’ (Blu-ray, Kino Classics, Not Rated) is an all-too-timely parable about immigration as it starkly considers the dilemma of closed borders during perilous times.
Imhoof’s drama ingeniously gathers a motley crew of six WWII refugees desperate for neutral Switzerland’s safety: four Jews, a French non-German speaking boy and a German soldier. As a pretend ‘family’ they can stay but if their ruse is discovered – if the boy speaks and does not play mute – certain death awaits as they are deported. ‘Boat’ was the very first film to expose and attack Swiss ‘neutrality’ and Imhoof’s interview is an invaluable bonus. In German with English subtitles. The 78 year old Imhoof’s most recent film, the 2018 ‘El Dorado’ is a personal story looking back to post-WWII when a young Italian girl came to live with his family before she was ultimately deported back to Italy. Imhoof then considers today’s immigrant crisis, visiting refugee camps in southern Italy, going aboard the Italian warships of Operation Mare Nostrum (Latin for ‘Our Sea,’ the Italian name for the Mediterranean). He exposes a process that is absurdly inhuman and in an age of inequality makes the northern European countries the ‘El Dorado’ of legend, a paradise that the desperate will try to reach whatever the cost.
MELANIE & LUMET For Melanie Griffith’s all too brief run as a critically praised leading lady – from 1986 in Jonathan Demme’s ‘Something Wild,’ the ‘88 Oscar-nominated Best Actress turn in ‘Working Girl’ and ‘92’s WWI espionage thriller ‘Shining Through’ opposite Michael Douglas – it is the ambitious, offbeat Sidney Lumet entry ‘A Stranger Among Us’ (Blu-ray, KL Studio Classics, PG-13) that stands out. Set amongst New York’s closely knit, insular and intensely private Hasidic community, ‘Stranger’ has Griffith’s cop going undercover to catch a killer.
Lumet began his impressive career as a child actor in the Lower East Side’s Yiddish theater but he was never an Orthodox Jew. Yet he imbues a respect and fascination for the community that won praise. The supporting cast includes Eric Thal (‘The Puppet Masters’), Jake Weber (‘Meet Joe Black’) and future ‘Sopranos’ star James Gandolfini. Screenwriter Robert J. Avrech — he also wrote Griffith’s highly sexual Brian DePalma hit ‘Body Double’ — does the audio commentary.
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Stephen Schaefer’s Hollywood & Mine - Boston Herald
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