Thumbnails Mar 21

by Tony Medley

Crisis (8/10): 143 minutes. R. This is a high tension, slam bang story of the development of an opioid drug, involving vicious drug dealers, a whistle-blowing professor, DEA agents, corrupt corporations promoting a dangerous drug, venal politicians, and a woman looking for vengeance for the murder of her son. Well-written and directed, it has excellent performances by Gary Oldman, Armie Hammer, Greg Kinnear, and the rest of the cast. There are many scenes in this film that inspire comparisons to the way the Covid vaccines have been rapidly developed, approved, and marketed.

Sin (8/10): 128 minutes. NR. A slice of life of Michelangelo (Alberto Testone, who looks like I picture Michelangelo, who was certainly no Charlton Heston) in the first half of the 16^th century. Director/writer (with Elena Kiseleva) Andrey Konchalovskiy has done a brilliant job of recreating what life must have been really like 500 years ago in Rome and Florence and environs. It was dirty, filthy; people lived in squalor. And that’s the way this film pictures it. There was nothing romantic about living in the Renaissance, no matter how beautiful the art. This also is probably the most realistic recreation of the character of Michelangelo, who was nothing if not cantankerous. Another positive is that it was filmed on location, including Monte Altissimo, where Michelangelo got his Carrara marble. It is often difficult to know who the characters are and is disjointed to say the least. It was the ambience and the presumed accuracy of the depiction of the life of the times that captured me. That was so good and realistic that the time passed easily despite the lack of a captivating plot. In Italian.

The Little Things (7/10): 127 minutes, R. Denzell Washington’s acting as a burnt-out out-of-town deputy sheriff helping to search for a serial killer in Los Angeles is greatly aided by a fine, quirky performance by Rami Malek as a troubled fellow cop, and a scintillating, award-quality performance by main suspect Jerod Leto, even though it’s 30 minutes too long.

The Dig (7/10): 112 minutes, PG-13. Both Carey Mulligan and Ralph Fiennes give moving performances in this true story about a widow who sponsors what turns out to be an historic dig on her English property in 1938. The early WWII ambience is very well recreated. Mulligan rarely disappoints and she doesn’t here.

I Care A Lot (6/10): 118 minutes. R. This is a legally phantasmagorical tale of a vicious elder care guardian (Rosamunde Pike) going against a psychopathic mafia chieftain (Peter Dinklage), a film without a protagonist to cheer burdened by a dubious premise and glaring reality-challenged plotholes. While adequately suspenseful and entertaining with good acting, its morally deficient ending fizzles. There is certainly a place for a film exposing the hypocrisy and evils that exist in many elder care facilities, but this misguided work is not it.

Mafia Inc (5/10): 140 minutes, R. A fictionalized account of the Mafia in Montreal based on a non-fiction book, it is a disappointing pale imitation of The Godfather totally lacking in captivating characters. In fact, there is one scene, meant to be shocking, that is almost a direct copy from The Godfather. While violent as required by the genre, it is too long, talky, and derivative to be involving. English and Italian.

Nomadland 3/10) 108 minutes. R. This story of a woman living out a life of quiet desperation is depressing and slow, teeming with shots of Frances McDormand thinking. Although it is apparently intended to glorify the life of dropping out and travelling around the country alone, it trivializes the difficulties that must be inherent in journeying over hill and dale alone in a small camper. Even though the cast includes real “nomads” playing themselves, there is not one uplifting or humorous moment in the entire film. To its further detriment, there is an unnecessary, gratuitous shot of full frontal McDormand nudity that earns it an R rating.