Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (December 2017)

Official Australian release date: 1/1/18. Viewed: 29/12/17.

Director: Martin McDonagh

Actors: Frances McDormand, Sam Rockwell, Woody Harrelson, Caleb Landry Jones

Genre: Mystery/Drama/Comedy

Rating: MA

  

‘Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri’ is the third film from writer/director McDonagh (of ‘In Bruges’ & ‘Seven Psychopaths’ fame), and continues his themes of taking something quite bleak/violent (in this case the murder of a woman’s daughter) and building situations with characters around it that can still be funny. Mildred (McDormand) is the focus here, and she rents three billboards from Red (Landry Jones) to call out the police for not finding her daughter’s murderer, so Chief Willoughby (Harrelson) is put in a tight spot.

Dixon (Rockwell) is one of his cops and has a great part as the dimwitted, slightly-bigoted younger cop. McDormand is exceptional as the ultra-focused and hard-nosed grieving mother, with a few layers. Harrelson is also good, but Cornish as his wife has the weirdest Australian/Southern accent mash-up I’ve ever heard! And the age-gap there is hard to comprehend… The only shame is Dinklage doesn’t get more screen time, but still good seeing him.

It’s odd that it was all filmed in North Carolina, not Missouri, as there’s some beautiful scenery shots that definitely don’t look like St Louis! Also worth noting that Ebbing’s not a real place. The mystery and investigation is handled quite well and realistically, but the attention here is on anger – misplaced or otherwise – and how it can consume people and create a destructive cycle.  Not the best use of music and not quite a perfect ending, but a very solid film.

Overall: Part funny, part bleak, all quite well done.

Gav's Rating: 3.5 stars.

Coco (December 2017)

Official Australian release date: 26/12/17. Viewed: 27/12/17.

Directors: Lee Unkrich & Adrian Molina

Actors: Anthony Gonzalez, Benjamin Bratt, Gael Garcia Bernal, Renee Victor

Genre: Adventure/Comedy

Rating: PG

  

‘Coco’ is another Disney-Pixar animation instant-classic, with an excellent, touching story, good music, in testing characters and great visuals. It’s also something a bit different – set in Mexico and following Miguel (Gonzalez), a boy who is accidently trapped in the Land of the Dead as he tries to escape. Even though all the spirits are depicted as skeletons, it’s not as sinister as it sounds – still very suitable for kids.

Miguel gets transported to the Land of the Dead on “Dia de Muertos” (“Day of the Dead”, when Mexicans honour their ancestors), after trying to learn more about his great-great grandfather (Coco’s dad), who was a famous musician – De La Cruz (Bratt – has a hilarious death). With him for the journey is Dante the dog, who provides a lot of the laughs. It’s great to see Miguel meeting and interacting with his great uncles and great aunties, who he’s only heard about. Plenty of colour, movement and imagination went into the Land of the Dead and it looks great – basically a tiered seaside village. Miguel is helped on his journey to find De La Cruz by Hector (Bernal), who’s trying to visit the Land of the Living, as he’s afraid he’s being forgotten and will soon cease to exist.

If you don’t have tears in your eyes at some point, then you’re probably dead and already in the Land of the Dead! The final 30min is exceptional, with a great twist and plenty of heartwarming moments. This is almost as good as ‘Up’ – huge praise from me! There’s some laughs, some songs, lots of fun, but most importantly the film really highlights the importance of family and honouring those who have come before you – extremely touching at times.

Overall: An extremely enjoyable film.

Gav's Rating: 4 stars.

Pitch Perfect 3 (December 2017)

Official Australian release date: 1/1/18. Viewed: 22/12/17.

Director: Trish Sie

Actors: Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson, Brittany Snow, Hailee Steinfeld

Genre: Comedy

Rating: M

  

‘Pitch Perfect 3’ is quite similar to the first two films, revolving around the “Bellas” a cappella group – although this time they’re out of college and dealing with being grown-ups. So when the chance to reunite for one last set of shows arises, playing to US troops in Europe, they all jump at it. Not much more to the plot than that, except for a slight detour with Amy’s Dad (Lithgow), which doesn’t add a whole lot, except him doing a horrible Aussie accent.

There’s some crap songs and a few decent ones, but they always make them interesting to watch/listen to and the film always has plenty to keep it’s momentum up – Beca (Kendrick) obviously getting the most screen time and a satisfying conclusion. Amy (Wilson) has a good number of funny lines and Chloe (Snow) has a bit more to do, and the other seven each get a few moments to shine.

I still wish there was more of Elizabeth Banks & John Michael Higgins as the commentators/documentary-makers, but they’re still great in every scene they’re in. It’s all predictable, but nonetheless uplifting and all about being there for your friends and following your dreams, while still being fun enough.

Overall: Fitting finale.

Gav's Rating: 3 stars.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi (December 2017)

Official Australian release date: 14/12/17. Viewed: 14/12/17.

Director: Rian Johnson

Actors: Daisy Ridley, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver

Genre: Action / Sci-Fi

Rating: M

  

‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ (Episode VIII) has a big challenge – live up to the original trilogy and build upon the solid foundation laid by ‘The Force Awakens’. It achieves both in parts, but probably not overall. If Episode VII was reminiscent of ‘A New Hope’, Episode VIII doesn’t really emulate ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ too much. It starts with a pretty good space battle between The Resistance and the First Order, with Poe Dameron (Issac) and General Hux (Gleeson) the main players. Poe’s a great character, but probably needed more of him. The characters are all in different locations, so the film spends a bit of time hopping between them – Luke (Hamill) and Rey (Ridley) are on Ahch-To; Leia (Fisher) is with Poe on a ship being chased by Hux & her son, Kylo Ren (Driver); Finn (Boyega) is on a mission with Rose (Tran) at Canto Bight, a casino planet.

Unlike the original and prequel trilogies, ‘The Last Jedi’ doesn’t pick up a few years later – it’s almost the next day. Some of my main issues with the film are because of this – The First Order had their massive “Starkiller Base” (and seemingly thousands of soldiers) destroyed at the end of Episode VII, so how do they suddenly have two of the biggest spaceships ever seen? Where are all their resources coming from? My other gripes are that’s it’s probably a little too long (2 hours 30min), we don’t learn where Snoke came from or how/why he’s so powerful/in charge, Laura Dern is not really needed, Benicio Del Toro’s character could’ve been done much better and we don’t see nearly enough of R2-D2, C-3PO, or Chewbacca. The film spends too much time in the space stand-off between Leia and Ren and is a bit disjointed cutting between what’s happening.

In saying all that, there’s plenty of positives, with Rey being the shining light in this new trilogy, and Ren continues to remain an interesting character. It’s good to see Luke have more screen time, even if he’s still brooding over his failure of Ben Solo/Kylo Ren. The Porgs were funny and cute, not annoying as I thought they might be, Chewie finally gets a hug from Leia (something that annoyed me at the end of Episode VII) and there’s a few good lightsaber duels, and the final act with the AT-AT’s/sky-speeders is very well done.

Overall: Not the best of the franchise, but does enough to keep the momentum going for Episode IX.

Gav's Rating: 3.5 stars.

The Disaster Artist (December 2017)

Official Australian release date: 7/12/17. Viewed: 8/12/17.

Director: James Franco

Actors: James Franco, Dave Franco, Seth Rogen, Alison Brie

Genre: Comedy

Rating: M

  

‘The Disaster Artist’ is a homage/satire of the making of ‘The Room’, one of the so-called “worst movies ever”. Full disclosure: I’ve never seen ‘The Room’, as I’m not sure there’s such a thing as “so bad it’s good”… It obviously made enough of an impact for James Franco, who decided to imitate his muse – Tommy Wiseau – by producing, starring in and directing this film. Franco didn’t write it though – it’s based on the book by Greg Sestero, Tommy’s best friend, played by Franco’s brother, Dave. One of the film’s strong points is watching them onscreen together.

There’s an exceptional backing cast – Seth Rogen as a script editor, Alison Brie (Dave Fracno’s actual wife), as Greg’s girlfriend, Ari Graynor as the female co-star, Jacki Weaver, Zac Efron, Paul Scheer, Megan Mullally, Jason Mantzoukas, Hannibal Buress, Sharon Stone, Judd Apatow, Bob Odenkirk. But the film is really carried by the Franco brothers – at least one of them is in every scene. The main revelation is how much James Franco looks like Tommy and the final 5min show a shot-by-shot comparison of some scenes, and it’s uncanny how close they got some of the diction and body language.

This is basically a film about making a film – an actual behind-the-scenes documentary might have been just as good. Not a whole lot happens really, and you know how it’s going to end. There’s plenty of funny moments, but I feel like it might be funnier if you’re familiar with ‘The Room’. Bit disappointed they didn’t actually resolve the mysteries of his age, place of birth & where his money comes from!

Overall: Mostly funny semi-parody.

Gav's Rating: 3 stars.