Movies
The Death of Stalin (2017)
While not quite as tight and rolling-on-the-floor funny as In the Loop, The Death of Stalin is an order of magnitude darker and more ambitious, which counts for a lot in my book. Seeming to take the premise that the USSR at the time of Stalin's death was roughly in the same state of political cravenness and strong-manning sycophancy as In the Loop's chaos left the UK's government by the end of that film (give or take a few state-sanctioned executions), The Death of Stalin explicates what happens when death—not election—is part of the mundane political procedure, and it's fascinating and hilarious, though the fascinating stuff and the hilarious stuff usually take turns, meaning that this movie is for long stretches a kind of cock-eyed historical thriller more than it is a comedy. Which in itself is fascinating. Its Russian setting also allows a bit of distance for us Westerners, lacking the "this is YOUR government" immediacy of In the Loop and thus making this movie's thesis about human nature and the piggish brutality of politics's quest for power a bit more metaphorical and less gut-punchy than Iannucci's last film. But this is all relatively small quibbling: The Death of Stalin is a tremendous movie, black as a gulag cell and as deft at balancing its tone between the horror of its political satire and the lithe comedy of its dialogue as any mainstream English-language movie has been since Doctor Strangelove. Grade: A-
Wonderstruck (2017)
The story is clunky almost to the point of complete dysfunction, but that doesn't really matter, honestly, since Wonderstruck seems to aspire to that especially rare category of "art films for children." As such, it's pretty much a mood piece, and the best moments in it are the ones that are wordless and basically plotless: kids exploring cryptic urban spaces with that sublime combination of mystery and awe that animates the best of children's lit—think the early stages of From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler or the better entries in The Chronicles of Narnia. It all leads up to a finale involving a scale model that, for all the creaking narrative structures that it takes to get us there, is breathtaking in its low-key surrealism and raw emotional potency. And if nothing else, the movie's a sumptuous Who's Who of Todd Haynes cinematic flourishes: stylistically grounded evocations of historical periods, miniatures, multiple actors playing the same characters, gorgeously hip music selections (Robert Fripp and Brian Eno's "Evening Star" is something of a motif, so hook this soundtrack right to my veins). I don't know if any of this works for children, but it sure works for me. Grade: B+
The Wedding Plan (לעבור את הקיר) (2016)
I found Fill the Void, Rama Burshtein's other feature, to be kind of dull, and such also is The Wedding Plan. But at least Fill the Void had engaging stylistic features like its attention to framing and costuming. The Wedding Plan, by comparison, looks like pretty conventional television. Interesting setting (we need more movies focusing on religiously devout Jewish women in Israel), but not really much to offer otherwise. Grade: C
22 Jump Street (2014)
As with the first movie, there are a few bits that work extremely well (the credits gag is an all-timer and added at least half a star to this review), while the rest of the movie is merely just mildly amusing. Still, I enjoyed it; the meta humor is surprisingly not terrible, and and Hill and Tatum continue to be having the best time ever, which is contagious. I'm not sure if all the "haha, bromance=gay" jokes are endearing for the way that they thoroughly and unjudgmentally embrace the homosexual subtext of the scenes or still covertly homophobic for the way that they are after all couched in the idea that homosexuality is somehow inherently funnier than heterosexuality, but either way, it's an interesting flavor for the movie that Jonah Hill's character is thoroughly unashamed of Tatum reaching up Hill's pants and feeling his junk. Grade: B
The Sugarland Express (1974)
A great deal of fun right up until it isn't, and the ending becomes almost unbearably tragic. Obviously, this is Spielberg's theatrical debut, and it's fascinating to look at this younger, scrappier Spielberg in comparison to Dignified Spielberg of the last couple decades. Spielberg has always been a "liberal" with a soft spot for those outside the establishment (even his "institution" pieces like Lincoln and The Post have a lot to do with the righteous transgression of procedure's traditional boundaries by outsiders), but the way that Sugarland Express positions outlaws as heroes and police as murderers feels so far afield from anything 21st-century Spielberg would touch. Spielberg has never been a radical; nevertheless, this is his politically radical movie, or as close as he ever got to one. Grade: A-
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