Two movies I saw and more “I am not in the demographic” previews

I can sometimes pack in a film while Dad is with Flower, if other circumstances permit, and my local theater chain has deep discounts / big rewards in place for Labor Day weekend. I saw Operation Finale on Friday afternoon. And was again treated to a series of previews to films I can’t really imagine seeing. And Searching on Saturday afternoon. And another series of questionable previews. I know there are films out there I can get excited about. Theoretically.

Operation Finale

Historical drama about the kidnapping of Adolf Eichmann in Argentina in 1960 and the days between his apprehension and the flight out of Buenos Aires. Seen because I’m a huge Hannah Arendt fan and because this film was half price plus double bonus points, but it was a big disappointment. It’s impossible to remove the lens that Arendt saw Eichmann through from subsequent portrayals of the man, and while that is controversial (and the film seems to play in the direction of mild questioning of her picture of the bureaucratical, boring genocider), Ben Kingsley doesn’t resolve this problem successfully. He does a good job of capturing Eichmann’s fussiness and his petit bourgeois rigidity, but not so much his utter banality. The script is okay, but Kingsley is so much more on top of his job than is Jason Isaacs Oscar Isaac (as Mossad operative Peter Malkin) that Isaacs is left in the dust and scenes that were clearly intended to be high tension are simply boring. Kingsley strikes sparks that never land on anything flammable in Isaacs. The film also brings in Simon Russell Beale as a curiously enervated Ben-Gurion (they must be counting on the likelihood that big pieces of their audience have no memory of him), although with accurate hairdo. There are a few pluses: the rarely-seen Peter Strauss as Lothar Herrmann; a couple of mid-twentieth-century Israeli politics insider jokes (“we’ll bring out Abba Eban, everyone seems to love him”). But the film misses the Jewishness where it counts and only manages it in the form of kitsch (Peter’s mother’s Sabbath chicken soup). All in all, a lost opportunity that won’t harm anyone’s careers, but will also be forgotten in a year. However, I was intrigued enough that I will read Malkin’s book about the episode.

The Nun

I couldn’t figure out the plot from this one — a young woman has visions so she travels to the basement of a Romanian abbey where things jump out at her. I can’t imagine why they showed this to the audience for Operation Finale.

Creed II

A film about boxing with Sylvester Stallone. Stallone is on the “not for any reason” list. Boxing is on the “only if there is some other tremendously compelling reason” list. Not for me, even if Graham McTavish shows up (he’s not currently on the cast list).

Schindler’s List 25th anniversary release

I will concede that this was at least an appropriate trailer to show in conjunction with Operation Finale. However, I hate the “suffering ends in redemption” Holocaust story line. And after twenty-five years of explaining to undergraduates that the Holocaust occurred in color and that the six million died without the poignant score playing in the background, and that the horrifying thing about genocides are not the heroes and villains, but the industrial, callous, business-like nature of the killing, I don’t need to see this one (with its revoltingly Zionist ending) ever again.

Hunter Killer

A submarine movie that involves Marines sailing into Russian territory in order to rescue a rogue Russian plus Gary Oldman looking typically bemused, as he often does when he’s not mimicking a historical character. I can definitely be sold on a “cat and mouse” scenario submarine film, but the most interesting thing about this trailer was the CGI.

Bad Times at the El Royale

Still a “no.” Do they think they can wear us down?

Welcome to Morwen

A man viciously beaten in a bar (the reason isn’t stated in the trailer, but research reveals the excuse given was his cross-dressing) creates an artistic world in order to recover his memories. Based on a true story. See above re: suffering as redemption. I haven’t liked a Zemeckis film since the 1990s, and I hate Forrest Gump. Nope.

A film whose name I missed (which is annoying)

The plot is that a Black woman who works at an all-male, all-white sports management agency is denied a promotion she thinks is guaranteed and a subsequent visit to a psychic gives her the curse, i.e., ability, to hear men’s thoughts. This is really the only trailer I saw that night that I found even somewhat appealing, although the humor may be a bit on the raunchy side for me.

Searching

A man looks for his daughter (who disappears after his wife’s death) using her online traces. I have a generally positive opinion of John Cho, and the theater chain offered me double rewards points + 25 bonus points for seeing it this weekend, so I thought, why not? I would definitely recommend this film — it has a clear but solid script with about five plot twists plus a red herring. The first two are obvious; the third follows from the second. But you’d have to have been paying very good attention to guess the fourth and fifth, although they are not hidden. I.e., if you want to feel superior, watch every screen with all of your attention. Bonus: all the violence is implied rather than seen. Cho is fine (as is the highly strung Debra Messing) but the point here is the social critique rather than the acting. How have the Internet in general and social media and cell phones in particular affected our relationships? This film will really make you think about those themes without pushing any particular conclusion in your face. It’s a quiet film without a lot of embellishment but it punches about its weight, and I really liked it. It’s hard to see how this could have been a Hollywood blockbuster (it was made for under $5M), but I’d like to see more films like this one.

Overlord

The horror film version of the D-Day invasions at Normandy. Why??? You’d think actual events hadn’t been bad enough or something.

Widows

When a group of criminals are kille during the commission of a crime, their widows are harassed by the competition and then step up to take their places. Mixed feelings — it looks violent and I’m tired of Liam Neeson as the hunted man. On the other hand, Viola Davis and Daniel Kaluuya, plus female empowerment (although some of it looks kitschy). Would consider seeing.

Mortal Engines

I guess this is the film Armitage was up for but couldn’t reconcile with the Berlin Station filming schedule? I didn’t really catch the plot from the trailer except that cities move on heavy-duty wheels and Hugo Weaving is chasing two young people. Oh, and Jackson, Walsh and Boyens were involved. Guessing Armitage was up for the role Weaving got? Anyway, I don’t usually see this kind of movie, and I doubt I’ll torture myself now — I don’t like to think about “what might have been.”

A Star is Born

This is another one that I feel is being rammed down my throat. Repeated viewings don’t make it any more appealing. Still no.

White Boy Rick

Another “based on a true story” film about a teenager who became an FBI informant. Matthew McConaughey is on the “not unless there is a really compelling reason” list. This is another one I might see in a pinch.

~ by Servetus on September 2, 2018.