Aquaman

I hope you guys like cheese with your H₂0 because there’s plenty in this movie. I’ll be honest: I’m more of a fan of the DC Universe than most. I enjoyed Batman vs Superman a good amount, really liked Wonder Woman (particularly after the first hour), thought Suicide Squad was entertaining enough, and found Justice League to be bearable. I’d probably pit Aquaman above the likes of Suicide Squad and Justice League but below Wonder Woman. There’s a lot of entertaining moments along with some cringe in this movie, so let’s go ahead and… dive… right in.

            Jason Momoa, aka Khal Drogo and even Conan, works perfectly as Arthur Curry, aka Fishboy—excuse me, Fishman. I mean, just, what a man. Even the multiple actors who play young Aquaman are well cast. But speaking of those flashbacks, young Willem Dafoe is one creepy dude; imagine a 60-year-old man looking up YouTube makeup tutorials from a tween girl, and that’s a bit like what he looks like—I swear those eyebrows are the stuff nightmares are made of. Curry is the son of the Queen of Atlantis—goddess Nicole Kidman—and a lighthouse keeper played by freaking Jango Fett himself (credit to Seth Sanders for pointing this out to me). Patrick Wilson is a good contrast to Momoa, but he’s a bland villain overall. Amber Heard as Lady Mera puts in a fine performance, but I’ll talk later about some of the dumb story points that involve her.

            And I have to dedicate a new paragraph for how bad Black Manta is. From his first scene where he raises his arm and yells, “NOOOOOOO,” as his father (Mr. HIV positive from E.R. as well as a bit part in the new show The Rookie) gets pinned under a torpedo as their submarine starts sinking, to his second scene where his only direction was to snarl and look menacing, to his third scene… It’s fine that Aquaman doesn’t take things too seriously, but it’s still not good if I’m chuckling at what are supposed to be some of the more serious parts. Of all the over-the-top acting and dialogue, Black Manta is the worst of them all.

            I’ll try not talking about the plot too much because, let’s face it, there isn’t much of one. Kudos to this movie for condensing the origin part of everything down, but the filmmakers knew going in that it wasn’t going to be the story that would sell the movie tickets. The film is over 2 hours long, and there were a couple parts where I could tell scenes had been whittled down just to keep the movie at its current length, but there weren’t any too egregious editing mishaps. When we’re introduced to Atlantis, we see glimpses of the ecosystem, economy, politics, lifestyles, and how the Atlantians and sea creatures live harmoniously, but one of my biggest wishes from the film was for them to go more in-depth on how the Atlantis society functioned. Again, I’ll explain more later, but they yada-yada’d over stuff so they wouldn’t have to explain other choices made in the movie.

            While there are occasional logical gaps in some of the storytelling, it all breezes along fine since nobody is really worried about it anyways. But I will not let the Sicily, Italy, scene go unheard because it’s awful. Worse trash than the pollution shown in the film is the lovey-dovey, smoochey smoochey element of Arthur and Mera. Their banter back and forth is more hit than miss, but instead of keeping a solid chemistry between the leads like how Aaron Sorkin has it in the greatest movie ever A Few Good Men, we are forced to watch them make it a relationship, and more than it being utterly predictable, it’s just bad. And this is exemplified by one of the worst uses of a soundtrack ever in a movie. Why in the world am I watching a superhero movie when I suddenly hear Pitbull singing—wait for it— “Ocean to Ocean.” After this is used in a transition scene, there’s also a love song played while Mera humorously adjusts to landlubber life in Italy much to the amusement of Arthur; the scene is fine and has a couple laughs, but the song is so heavy-handed and on the nose and just kills everything. It’s weird and the songs aren’t very good either; okay fine, the song played during the end credits is decent, but that shouldn’t even count. And to top it all off, when Pitbull isn’t rapping, we’re graced by the worst score in a DC movie yet. Hans Zimmer utilized excellent themes for the 3 big heroes in Batman vs. Superman, but this sadly doesn’t include Aquaman, so the score by Rupert Gregson-Williams ends up consisting of music that works better for trailers and rips off the Inception bwaahhhummhhhhh. For the record I think I did a solid job interpreting what that sound is.

            Okay, after that little rant, let’s switch it up a bit. I think one of the best things going for Aquaman is director James Wan. Outside of a couple miniscule critiques, the way he choreographed the action sequences I thought was wonderful. This movie is a huge CG-fest. For the most part, the CGI is fine and sometimes pretty good. I absolutely dug every time he probably made his cinematographer dizzy by swirling the camera around the action without using noticeable cuts. If you’re creating a no holds barred sci-fi CGI action film, this is the way I want the action to be. Even the smaller stunts are just cool idea after cool idea. And this is possible by one of the best and worst things about the movie—there are essentially no rules. I have no idea what is supposed to hurt Aquaman and what isn’t, how the water physics and abilities work, who in Atlantis gets to use Jedi water force tricks and who doesn’t, and how advanced the technology is (they explain it a wee bit). This opens up the action to allow any cool thing to happen, but it also eliminates some of the tensions and thrills associated with thinking a key character is actually in danger of being seriously hurt or killed. But to the credit of Aquaman, since they do in fact embrace the corny, this ends up being more of a minor critique.

            And to talk a bit more of the CGI, if this was an old school video game where the graphics were based on how realistic the water looked, then this movie wins. There are really cool implementations of water including water holograms and baddies spewing out water when a limb is chopped off. One of the most impressive things to me is how the characters interacted underwater. The hair moves in a believable way (including Momoa’s beard), the slightly muffled voices get the desires effect without being distracting or inaudible, and the characters are consistently drenched whenever they transition from underwater to a dry or secluded area. Obviously, plenty of green screens had to be used, and besides some of the backgrounds looking flat, the film holds up nicely all the way through. Most of the sea creatures look pretty good too, but most importantly, this movie answers what a shark sounds like, which apparently is close to a lion’s roar.

            Okay, if I was to sum up what kind of experience you’ll get from Aquaman, this is how I’d do it. There’s an escape sequence with Arthur and Mera, and Arthur has a funny line about using something from Pinocchio to help them escape. Not even 5 minutes go by and we’re now in Sicily in the previously described scene. A little girl throws a coin in a fountain, and Mera uses her Jedi water tricks to make water dolphins start dancing in the fountain. The little girl is amazed and runs to tell her mother. Arthur and Mera start talking, and in the background the little girl buys a book. Of all the street shops in all the towns in all the world, the little girl buys Pinocchio and hands it to Mera. Granted, Arthur gets a funny punchline out of this, but it’s this type of schtick that can be overbearing.

            There’s a lot that happens in the forefront and in the background, and this works well in the action scenes, but the cheesiness is too much when the movie has to story. The costumes are beautiful, the film has a good color palette, and James Wan and Jason Momoa are the primary reasons why Aquaman is able to work in the first place, but it really mostly comes down to how willing you are to go along for the ride. I think the movie is pretty enjoyable all around and would even give my recommendation to see it in theaters, but just know that the cheese is strong in this one.

In Brief:

·       Won’t have too much in this section since I still need to see the other 3 December movies I mentioned in the Adaptation. review.

·       Mentioned both E.R. and The Rookie. E.R. has a ridiculous amount of episodes, and The Rookie is still in its first season, and I give my recommendation for both shows.

·       According to Nik Durman and Noah Yarborough, Love Island is quality trash to check out, and I think I might just do that.

·       The MIB: International trailer hit, and I have hopes for it—big fan of all 3 of those films.

·       I am so excited for Detective Pikachu next summer.

·       If I ever take like a week to rewatch all the Marvel movies, I’d like to a ranking of all those. 

Adaptation!

So here I am. Writing a movie review. The day is July 17. I just wrote a review for that dinosaur movie starring a guardian of a galaxy and need to branch off. But what is there to do? Certainly there is a review out there waiting to be tackled by my very particular set of skills. Skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for other critics. Hm, there’s nothing more different from the action blockbuster than Adaptation.! Of course, it makes perfect sense. I’ll get to work immediately and crank this out.

--Months pass, friends are lost, babies are born, movies are watched—

Why have I not begun? Is it because this film doesn’t fall into my traditional format for review writing? Where’s my eye-popping and witty intro segued into a body full of useful information and basic plot points? I’m running out of time, I promised my agent a review by noon 10 weeks ago! What to do, what to do…

“Hello, Jacob.”

Oh, hey twin and not at all plot convenient brother Jeffrey Gill! What brings you here?

“I just wanted to check in on how that new review of yours was coming along! You know, since I took your advice and started my own blog, I’ve been able to quit my daytime job to pursue this full time! How crazy is that?”

Yeah, super crazy, Jeffrey. Look, I’m a bit busy on this review and all, and you know, I usually do this stuff. By myself.

“Hey, I understand! But if there’s anything I could do, after all that my baby bro has done for me, well, nothing would make me happier.”

Well actually, this is the longest I’ve gone without a review, and it just feels like nothing is coming together.

“Well let’s see… Adaptation.? That’s that Nic Cage film, right?”

Yeah, you know he was born—

“—Nicolas Kim Coppola? Yeah, you used to tell me that all the time. Well, he’s got a new movie coming out. That uh Amazing, no, Incredible, no, Ultimate, no, oh! Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. That’s it. Yeah, he’s got a pretty big role in that I heard. There’s your intro right there.”

Wow, yeah, that’s perfect. Well guys, I’m back and objectively better than ever. If you’re confused at all by what’s happening, and I’m absolutely assuming you are, let’s clear the air. Charlie Kaufman is one of the most unique writer/directors in Hollywood who wrote one of my favorite movies—Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Before that, however, he found success writing Being John Malkovich (directed by Her director Spike Jonze). After this, Kaufman was tasked to write a screen adaptation of the book The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean. Realizing that this book has very little action and conflict, Kaufman gets writer’s block. His solution? He starts writing a screenplay about Charlie Kaufman unable to write a screenplay about The Orchid Thief. This turns into the movie Adaptation. about Charlie Kaufman and his fictional twin brother Donald that advances the plot with both brothers being played by Nic Cage, and Meryl Streep comes along to play Susan Orlean and Spike Jonze directs as well.

If you’re thinking Kaufman is one weird dude, you’re 100% right. His films (including Synecdoche, New York) all work to varying degrees. Although Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind still tops the list for me and Being John Malkovich is tons of fun, Adaptation. is close up there. Even under 2 hours it drags in parts, and sometimes Cage’s flawed Charlie Kaufman character is a bit too much to handle. With that said, his dual performance might just be my favorite Nic Cage performance (can’t stand Leaving Las Vegas, fight me). Kaufman’s script is also possibly his strongest, and Meryl Streep provides an unhinged performance. Of Cage, Streep, Chris Cooper, and Kaufman, Cooper is the one who won the Oscar for his category of Best Supporting Actor (Streep did win the Golden Globe though). I think he was the least deserving, but I think it had mostly to do with who they were competing against. Side note: Kaufman was listed twice when he got his writing nomination because they gave credit to Donald Kaufman as well. Throw in a great ending, and everything adds up to one of the most unique, strange, and fun films out there.

Intro? Check. Plot summary? Check. Critique? Check. All that’s missing is an ending deserving of the movie…

“If there’s one thing I’ve learned, Jacob, it’s that you’re at your best when you write from the heart.”

Wow, Jeffrey, thanks. I really needed to hear that cliched motivational statement. If you’re interested in Adaptation., it does help to have first seen Being John Malkovich as this movie literally opens with Charlie Kaufman on the set of Malkovich. I will still contend that the best introduction to Kaufman’s work is Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind with Jim Carrey in a career-defining starring role. How’s that?

“Great stuff! Now end the review.”

But how?

“Like this.

“The end.”

In Brief:

·       I have to pat myself on the back because I was totally right when I said Mission Impossible: Fallout was going to be the movie of the summer. Granted, it was a pretty weak summer (and year to be honest), but still.

·       I have a couple more reviews I have planned, so hopefully more will be on the way soon. Also, after some lackluster months, December is looking pretty great. After watching a 5-minute extended trailer, I was sold that Aquaman will actually be good. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse seriously also looks good, might go see Clint Eastwood in The Mule because who knows how many more movies ol’ Blondie has got left in him, and there’s no way Christian Bale as Dick Cheney and Sam Rockwell as George W. Bush in Vice isn’t a winning combination.

·       Die Hard is the greatest Christmas movie.

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

I saw that new dino movie, and there is plenty to discuss, so let’s get right to it. The beginning is flat out terrible. I hated it. Like, I did not come into this movie expecting an Aaron Sorkin script-- or even a Michael Crichton script-- but this was just bad. The opening scene may be the worst of it filled with cliches, conveniently stupid characters, and utter predictability. It was obvious the film was determined to start off with action and a subplot to be brought back at the end of the film, and they just went with the first idea that was thought up. After this abysmal opening, the transitioning from showing where our 2 main attractive leads are to how they end up at the next big action set piece is chopped up with throwaway narrative. Seriously, Owen (Chris Pratt) has supposedly moved on from both Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard-- filmmaker and actor Ron Howard’s daughter) and dinosaurs in these past 3 years. He meets Claire for a drink, and all she does is say that he is better than this and that there is a plane tomorrow. That is all she does to try to convince him to come on this suicidal rescue mission. And it works! One look back at his time with baby Blue, and Owen suddenly remembers about his caring side for these animals. His cabin will have to wait for another film to be finished.

    And now on to the island eruption escape rescue mission prominently featured in the trailer. Surprise, I mostly did not care for this at all. Ted Levine will forever have a special place in my heart for his role as Captain Stottlemyer in the show Monk. And his acting honestly isn’t bad. But his character is atrocious. A greedy, evil mercenary in a Jurassic movie? What a surprise! Side character Zia is also super boring to watch, and Franklin is more annoying than he is funny. Chris Pratt did his worst Leo DiCaprio impression from The Wolf of Wall Street when he tries escaping the flowing lava in his tranquilized state. The scene with the dinosaur in the lava-splitting control room is cool to look at but also suffers from being mostly ridiculous. And when you really think about it, the fact that the island blows up right as they are completing their rescue mission to allow the most implausible of escapes just really tests the limits of what I allow in an action film. 2 more issues: the music up to this point is bland, and there’s a CGI issue. When the movie slows down and takes its time, I think everything looks pretty good overall; but once you add chaos, the movie can’t quite handle all the dinosaurs trying to interact and move with each other in the smoothest of ways. Sorry, one more issue. If you remember the “There’s always a bigger fish” line from Star Wars Episode I, you can apply that to dinosaurs anytime the main characters are in trouble of being devoured.

    There are definitively 2 things that I can look back at from the first half of this film and actually enjoy. I think that at the beginning of the film, having Owen and Claire switch roles from the first film is actually a clever move. Claire is working for a conservation effort desperate to get Congress and lobbyists to save the dinosaurs that are stuck on Isla Nublar that has been threatening to explode, and Owen has retreated to a hermitlike life trying to build a cabin and stay away from the craziness of what happened 3 years ago. It’s a smart way to introduce these characters even if the rest of the opening is butchered. Also, from the island escape scene, the underwater gyrosphere scene is a really awesome and tense shot. I also want to point out that even though I was mostly tough on the first half of this film, I feel like the average moviegoer won’t be as annoyed as I was. I’m being picky about an action film that has dinosaurs in the present day, so many of you honestly probably won’t have all the same problems that I have. And that’s okay. I just want to make everyone aware that the problems are there.

    Now then, it is probably clear by this point that I have talked non stop about the first half of this film with little mention of anything else. So as to not give away anymore of the plot, I’ll try to keep things as vague as possible. But do know that I thought the third act of this film was awesome. The action was suspenseful and thrilling, the filmmaker got creative with some shots, and the dinos shone through. The villain is terrible, but that doesn’t diminish the action for me. In case you forgot from Jurassic Park and World, Dr. Wu is determined to continue his research no matter what the cost, and there is a shady corporation that plans to use these dinosaurs as weapons. Oh, and the film has James Cromwell as basically an exact replacement for John Hammond.

    But if you put the human motives aside, the entire third act is pretty great. And I believe I can explain why. Let’s take a trip down memory lane to the amazing Jurassic Park. You do have the likes of "Hello, Newman" Wayne Knight as a greedy two-timer trying to steal the dino DNA, but he is never the focal point. He gets the action set and rolling, but the emphasis is always on the dinosaurs. Granted, Michael Crichton did a great job writing the characters, but it isn’t the human-to-human interactions that make the movie so beloved. It is the dinosaur-to-human threat. Spielberg knew this. The first half of Fallen Kingdom did not. The dinosaurs are constrained while the plot is moved forward solely by humans. This contrast is even more evident once the third act kicks in and the dinos are unleashed. The audience is not terrified by black market auction dealings; no, it is when a T-Rex or Abdominus Rex or Indo Raptor has little regard for who is good and who is evil and is simply on the hunt. And having Cromwell’s granddaughter Maisie Lockwood--  the best side character for the record-- part of the action ups the ante of the danger of the situation appropriately. Heck, the music also improves tremendously. As for the ending of the film, there are some cool ideas implemented, and it certainly brings the series to a point of no return. How the eventual third film will handle it is completely unknown by me, but hey, it makes me curious and enthusiastic about what will come.

    I believe a good chunk of people will find the first half to be anywhere from bearable to entertaining, I personally thought it was extremely lazy and poorly executed. What saves this film from a scathing review to an actual recommendation is the third act. The thrilling action is exactly what you are hoping for when you pay to see this movie in theaters. It is gripping, edge-of-your-seat quality stuff, and even though it doesn’t make me forget the beginning, it absolutely helped with my lasting impression. This is not the movie of the summer, but it still is a good time at the theater.

In Brief:

• You may have heard of Hotel Artemis and probably just didn’t care or bother to go watch it. If you see it on TV in a couple years, it’s worth the watch. Not much more though. Hey, it has Dave Bautista and Jeff Goldblum (who holds nothing more than a cameo in Fallen Kingdom), okay.
• Watched I, Tonya. Dialogue was super choppy. Margot Robbie is always a plus though. Decent movie all around with great ice skating shots-- even if it is quite obvious that the triple axel is fake.
• Hearts Beat Loud is a good enough feel-good indie flick with an interesting role for Nick Offerman (and such a different character for Toni Collete after just watching her Hereditary). Go see the movie or don’t, doesn’t matter to me. But check out the songs from it. Really, really enjoyed the soundtrack.
• For all you haters, I just want to put it out there that Jurassic Park 3 is an entertaining film. If you sit back and leave your cares at the door, it’s just a fun movie. Honestly.
• I highly recommend looking up the author Michael Crichton. He wrote the novel and the screenplay for the original Jurassic Park, and his main genre is sci-fi thriller. And he adds a bunch of plausible science to everything and makes you wonder in books like Timeline if time travel could actually be possible. Books like Sphere and Prey are also at the top of my book recommendations.
• Hotel Transylvania 3 is coming out with Adam Sandler back as Drac. I have approximately 0 thoughts about that series; however, I did see Billy Madison recently. Absolutely a dumb film, but for every 3 jokes that I did not laugh at, there was a decent one. And a couple really funny moments-- like Billy pelting kids with dodgeballs. Also also, of everything I have seen from Sandler, what might warrant a review-- or at the very least my recommendation-- is Punch-Drunk Love. It’s a strange and great film.
• Fallen Kingdom may not be the film of the summer, but we all know what will be. That’s right. There is nobody that can stop me from going to see Mission Impossible: Fallout in a couple of weeks. Possibly multiple times. There is a 0% chance that it will be a bad movie.

Hereditary

I saw A Quiet Place earlier in the year, and to me that was the best horror movie since It Follows a few years back. Hereditary is also a horror movie, but you can’t really compare it to A Quiet Place. A Quiet Place is a brisk 90 minutes that gets started right from the get-go without bothering with any clunky exposition because it knows it already has a solid premise that doesn’t need dialogue explaining the backstory. Hereditary, however, is a slow burner. It is atmospheric and disturbing and is always setting itself up. There are surprises and scares along the way, but it certainly fills up its 2 hour runtime engaging the core characters. Both of these movies mentioned are worth seeing in theaters (shame on you if you didn’t see A Quiet Place), but this review is obviously only for 1 of these movies.

    To start reviewing Hereditary more, I actually want to make one more comparison, and you probably won’t be able to guess it either. I’m talking about How To Train Your Dragon 2. I will give a moment to process why on earth I might use this film as a comparison… Okay, moment over. If you saw this animated sequel-- and you really should, it’s a fantastic film honestly-- you probably enjoyed the visuals and the story and the likable characters. But that’s not why I’m talking about it. What makes How To Train Your Dragon 2 stand out from other animated films are the scenes in between the action. There would be scenes with just two characters talking with each other, and the writing was just spot on. It was really well done and pulled the entire film together cohesively. Hereditary is similar in how it builds its arcs with all of the family members.

    If you watched the trailer, there isn’t too much to know about the film except a creepy looking little girl in the family with dead grandma waving to the camera. Dead grandma is in fact how the film starts out, and I’m not spoiling anything by saying that her soul isn’t quite done with whatever mission it had to do. We get to know the mother Annie played absolutely brilliantly by Toni Collette who seems a bit disconnected and is trying to figure out the right way to grieve her mother’s passing. The father Steve is introduced in that amicable way where he’s happy if the family is happy and brings about a sort of mellow warmness to the film. The eldest is a pot-smoking high school student named Peter (pretty sure one of the bongs he uses was penis shaped, but I have not and will probably not try confirming that). The daughter Charlie has this creepy look where you’re not sure if there is any sort of deformity or mental issue, but other than her slightly off look and her peanut allergy, she’s a little girl. Who also makes this creepy clicking noise. And cuts off the head of a dead bird. But just a little girl.

    Without explaining any of the mystery away, the rest of the plot is pretty simple. The family tries moving on all in their own ways, but there’s obviously something supernatural lurking in the background. The mother goes to one of those meetings like AA except it’s for grieving parents, and despite her hesitation, it seems like that is helping her. Also, side note, Annie makes miniature lifelike scenes-- all of which she draws from her life. There isn’t much story relevance to this, but the first time filmmaker Ari Aster (one of the catchiest names ever) uses it to a really cool trippy effect in transition shots. One of her sets is of their large house surrounded by trees, and in some transition shots, it is difficult to tell if you’re looking at real life or one of the mom’s scenes.

    The acting-- especially from Toni Collette-- is top-notch, the story-- while simple-- is executed better than almost any, and the scares are genuine. For one more comparison that I think will help, I saw The Shining written all over this film from art direction, pacing, and overall mood. The horror here is just genuine. You will not get your dozens of jump scares like from The Woman in Black for instance, but you get truly unsettling scenes, disturbing moments and images, and a constant sense of dread settling in. The whole movie is engaging, but I do not want to lie in saying that the movie does take its time in getting to the climax. It’s the kind of movie that rewards the audience for paying attention the whole time, and just for the climax alone, it is worth seeing this movie in theaters. Luckily for me, I saw this with my oldest brother who dashed out 10 minutes into the film because the lights weren’t turned off, and he got them to turn them off because this film totally needs it. Although I’m a huge fan in the execution of the climax, the ending itself won’t please everybody-- possibly myself included. It was not what I was expecting, it’s also a bit confusing, and it’s just one of those endings that needs time to process. I’m not 100% behind it, but I still respect it. This will not be a film for everybody by any means. It is not mainstream horror. But it is the well executed type of film that keeps me coming back to horror. I’m picky about my horror films, and Hereditary easily cracks my top 5 for the genre. If you want high quality horror and a hard time sleeping that night, go see Hereditary this week before it leaves theaters.

In Brief:

• Incredibles 2 is arguably better than the original. A somewhat predictable villain, but a strong motive and good execution makes it work. And overall, it really is great fun the whole family can enjoy. And give me a Frozone spinoff.
• I will probably do a review for a different animated film coming up. Also possibly one for an 80s gangster crime film. My internship ends in a couple of weeks, so that might open me up to doing more reviews this summer
• Never really watched the show, but I found it interesting to learn about Mr. Rogers in Won’t you be my Neighbor? It’s probably more interesting than the show itself
• Sicario: Day of the Soldado is a gritty, bloody thriller. It doesn’t have the visceral punch that Denis Villeneuve and Johan Johansson brought to the first, but the plot from Taylor Sheridan (wrote the first, Hell or High Water, and wrote and directed Wind River) is actually an improvement. It sets up a possible third movie, and bringing Emily Blunt back I think would be a good move.
• The action in Skyscraper looks too much like a Fast and Furious film, so I have little hope for that film.

• July 27th. Mission Impossible: Fallout. It’s going to be great.

The Apartment

The last few reviews have all been recent movie releases, so I thought we would rewind the clock and look back at the 1960 Best Picture winner The Apartment. This movie won 4 other Oscars-- including director and writer-- and a handful of nominations like nods to the 2 lead roles in Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine. Lemmon plays Mr. Baxter, a gullible schnook (his coworkers’ words, not mine. Well… yeah, my words too) who can’t say no to his superiors at the office. They borrow his key to the apartment, and they use it for their scandalous affairs; in return, Mr. Baxter keeps getting high recommendations which result in promotions. It’s not exactly the lightest of fares, but a consistent script and an endlessly likable lead keep the comedic tone.

    The light-hearted tone mixed with egregious company behavior is seen in full swing on the elevators. Here, executives are quick to play off contact with the elevator girls that laugh it off; such is not the case with the respectable Mr. Baxter. He treats elevator girl Fran with care and shows genuine interest in her. It is indeed the makings of a rom-com, but the film actually gets quite melancholy. Mr. Baxter’s boss Mr. Sheldrake finds out about the key, and it turns out he wants in on the action. Only, unbeknownst to Lemmon at the time, that action is supposed to be with Fran. There’s an interaction that takes place halfway through the movie that, to me, shows the style of wit, character interaction, and overall mood of the film. Mr. Baxter is feeling down on his luck since it is New Year’s Eve and everyone seems to be having the time of their life (including a coworker who has Baxter’s apartment reserved for the night), and even though he is being promoted at a breakneck pace, he does not really have any companion to tell about-- now not even Fran. This leads him to a bar with quite an intoxicated woman whose husband is currently on the other side of the country. She tries striking up a conversation, asking about his family (he has none) and relationships (none). After his deadbeat attitude, she says, “Night like this, it sorta spooks you, walking into an empty apartment,” to which Lemmon replies, “I said I had no family. I didn’t say I had an empty apartment.” It’s not really laugh-out-loud kind of wit that we think of in today’s sense, but it is just that clever twist in writing that tries to uplift a story that has its darker moments.

    This will not be the funniest comedy you see, but there are plenty of reasons to watch it. The story unfolds nicely, and I think the leads bring loads of charm to the screen. But really, the main quality brought about upon a viewing today is the level of nostalgia that comes along. The music is fitting but completely over the top, the dialogue is clever without pushing the envelope, the clothes and cars and elevators and lights all reek of 1960, and heck, it is a black and white film. There is inexplicably some joy of watching people have to twirl their fingers to dial each number to make a phone call, and I had the greatest time seeing the remote control Mr. Baxter had for his tv.

For those of you that think old films are too slow-paced, unrelatable, too black and white, and simply not interesting, really take a look at this movie. The story is one of the most engaging, the characters are vibrant (and yes, a little old-timey), and you will ultimately leave the movie feeling better than before. I’m not really sure how stiff the competition was, but the Oscars for this film feel well-deserved. You hear about Casablanca and Citizen Kane and To Kill a Mockingbird and whatever else, but despite all the acclaim, you don’t really hear about The Apartment. And I think that is a bit of a shame because this film should be right up there in being considered a classic.

In Brief:

• I’m considering making this a mainstay section at the end of reviews. I continue to watch movies, but I don’t always feel the desire to make a whole review for the film. So I can briefly give input on other films that I’ve seen that probably won’t get the review treatment, along with any other news I find interesting.
• Deadpool 2 is funnier than the first
• Solo is fun in a meh way-- you never get behind the star as actually being a young Harrison Ford (but the guy in The Age of Adaline would have been perfect)
• Going back a bit, A Quiet Place was the best and most original horror film since It Follows (might actually do a review for that at some point)
• Make sure to rewatch The Incredibles before seeing 2 because obviously it is going to start right where the original ended
• For those of you that don’t know, July 27 will be a great day because the movie of the summer, Mission Impossible: Fallout comes out
• I’m hearing good things about the new Jurassic World, but I honestly haven’t been all that impressed with the trailers
• Lastly, if you have a suggestion for what I should call the In Brief section, or if I should just continue calling it In Brief, please let me know