Only The Brave

I live downwind from the cluster of wildfires giving North California grief. I could smell the fires all the way here a few weeks ago. It's probably ill-timing for a major movie about wildfires even if it's based on a real one and the heroes who fought it. That's where Only the Brave comes in.

The firefighter crew eventually known as the "Granite Mountain Hotshots" directly confronted wildfires in and around Prescott, Arizona. Their chief, Eric Marsh (Josh Brolin), fought hard to make them a certified crew. They take on a new recruit, Brenden McDonough (Miles Teller), just as they start their official evaluation. Brenden is a loser who decides to shape up after getting promoted to papa. All but Marsh are reluctant to let him onto the team. But he warms up to them after the team is finally certified.

The team confronts numerous fires and their own personal issues. It all leads to the 2013 Yarnell Hill Fire, which leaves only Brenden alive. Their struggle was documented in GQ's article No Exit, which formed the basis for Eric Warren Singer and Ken Nolan's screenplay.

Brenden's story arc is a movie standard. He's the screw-up trying to turn his life around, doubted by his peers, but they warm up to him. But there's no big moment where he proves himself because of the historical outcome. It works because Teller makes him likable. He's a screw-up but he's honest and hard-working. He still gets some funny bits during the movie. This surely gets him the audience's favor all the way through.

The rest of the cast is filled with great actors big and small. There's Brolin as Marsh and Jennifer Connelly as his wife, Amanda, Jeff Bridges as Fire Chief Duane and Taylor Kitsch as Marsh's deputy Chris McKenzie. They're a good bunch of characters you get to know throughout most of the film's 133 minutes. Their likability makes the ending hard to sit through.

Director Joseph Kasinski proves he can work as much with a $38 million budget as he can with a $120 million one. The wildfires and their aftermath are eerily realistic disaster scenes. Cinematographer Claudio Miranda perfectly envisions these disasters as what Marsh describes them: the apocalypse. They're matched by a sound design consisting of vicious sound effects. Billy Fox's editing builds up the drama and even comedy of the hotshots' lives.

Only The Brave is a fine true life story. It's more about the people who fight the fires than the fires themselves. There are actually more drama scenes than there are disaster scenes. So it's not accidentally too-timely considering my state's recent calamities. Whether or not you choose to see it I'll leave it to you. It's still a glowing film that's sure to join a long list of distinguished titles down the line.

Professor Marston and the Wonder Women

Wonder Woman made her impact on the big screen last summer. We now have a biopic based on the man who created the superheroine … and the women in his life. There was a fleeting trailer for the movie before Wonder Woman last summer and now, Professor Marston and the Wonder Women is here.

In 1928, Dr. William Moulton Marston (Luke Evans) is a Harvard Professor married to Elizabeth (Rebecca Hall). The Marstons teach behavioral studies by day and develop the polygraph by night. A student, Olive Byrne (Bella Heathcoate), applies as their lab assistant. Marston is smitten with Olive and while Elizabeth isn't fond of the hypotenuse, sparks fly between them too. Their unusual lives cost the Marstons their jobs, Olive her engagement and them their normal lives. They'll have to move away from Harvard.

Marston hopes to make his theories more accessible to the public. A trip to a BDSM costume shop inadvertently gives him the inspiration for the Amazonian superheroine. A quick meeting with Max Gaines (Oliver Platt), publisher of All-American Publications later, and Wonder Woman is ready to go. Unfortunately, the Marston's neighbors have caught on to their kinks and ostrasized them. The Moral Guardians have also caught on to Wonder Woman's admitted BDSM imagery and are ready to grill him. What's a scientist to do?

Director/Writer Angela Robinson's screenplay frames Marston's life with his meeting with one such moral guardian (Connie Britton). His backstory leads back to the framestory, leading up to his hospitilization for the skin cancer that killed him in 1947. We see how he laid the ground work for the DISC theory and how Elizabeth refined the polygraph. We see a lot of R-Rated material. What don't we see? How and why Marston decided to come up with a comic book superheroine. He sees Olive dressed in a dominatrix outfit and – bam! - Wonder Woman! We open the film with a comic book burning, but until she appears, we don't see a chronological mention of a comic book.

The three leads make the film great. Marston is a bold intellectual, Elizabeth his reserved equal and Olive finding her place between them (i.e., ID, superego and ego). Their first uses of the polygraph are tense as their lies are exposed by science. Their difficulties with each other are as tough as any “normal” family. They struggle to survive the scrutiny of their neighbors and moral guardians but ultimately pull through.

There are many technical wonders on the crew. The production and costume design are a good representation of the era. Bryce Fortner's cinematography really shines when Olive appears in her outfit, which is presented in a dreamy “Eureka” moment leading to Wonder Woman. Jeffrey M. Werner's editing makes the back-and-forth chronology comprehensible and the dramatic moments tense. Tom Howe's score is good, even if the period standards are more memorable.

Professor Marston and the Wonder Women isn't exactly an accurate representation of the early days of the greatest comic book heroine. It's still a good character study of three people in an atypical relationship. It's not perfect and thorough but it held my interest for its 108 minutes. It ends with an epilogue which ends the film on a fine note.

Speaking of comic books, it makes me wonder when someone will finally adapt The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, a novel about two fictional comic creators. There's another great story waiting there!

Battle of the Sexes

Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Farris made their mark on independent cinema with their feature debut, Little Miss Sunshine. Their next feature, Ruby Sparks, was a quirky movie I wished I'd seen back in the day. This time, I made sure I caught their latest effort, Battle of the Sexes, their dramatization of the classic tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs.

In 1973, King (Emma Stone) is the champion of the Women's Tennis Circuit. She doesn't find it rewarding to get less than equal pay than the men. So she and several female tennis players start the Women's Tennis Association. Their victories make progress for the Women's Liberation Movement. Meanwhile, the married Billie's life gets complicated when she meets hairdresser Marilyn (Andrea Riseborough).

Meanwhile, Riggs (Steve Carrell) is a gambling-addicted office drone who used to be a tennis pro. He decides to get back on top by proving man as the superior tennis player. He decides to challenge the top ranked Woman Tennis Player to an exhibition match, the eponymous “battle of the sexes.” He plays up the chauvinist pig angle like a badge of honor. It's only a matter of time before Billie finally accepts the challenge.

Both Stone and Carrell serve up capable performances as King and Riggs. Billie is as great an athlete as she is a person. We feel for her as she struggles for equal pay and sorts through her personal life. The dramatic unravelings in her life sting not just for her but for the audience. She doesn't take Bobby's challenge seriously and only does when she sees the misogyny he upholds. Her victory ends the film on a fine note.

Meanwhile, Bobby's first scene shows him in his lonely office job. Even though we see he has a wife (Elizabeth Shue) and chums, we still feel he has no one but his glorious past. There were times I thought he was only acting the part of a chauvinist (or greatly exaggerating it) because of the absurd lengths he goes to. He's at least more sympathetic than the announcer (Bill Pullman), whose misogyny is much blunter.

Amongst the supporting cast, Jessica McNamee stands out as Billie's fellow WTA player and rival Margaret Court. Alan Cumming is also great as the Association's fashion designer, Ted Tinling, as is Eric Christen Olsen as Bobby's coach, Lornie. Riseborough as Marilyn is endearing and Austin Stowell as Billie's husband Larry is OK.

The most striking feature is Linus Sandgren's cinematography, whose grainy colors makes it look like a film from the 70's. Even the Fox Searchlight logo is stylized like the Fox logo of the era. There's also Pamela Martin's editing which makes the dramatic moments tense and the games exciting. Nicholas Britell's score is as memorably melancholy as his soundtrack for Moonlight. The makeup artists also deserve attention for making Stone and Carrell into the splitting images of their real-life characters.

Battle of the Sexes spends a lot of time building up to the inevitable showdown. But the engaging cast kept me interested for its 121 minutes. It's a strong personal story as it is a sports story. Don't let this film fall by the wayside; see it if you can find it. They need the box-office, stat.

Blade Runner 2049

Hello, whiplash. Now I go from pastel ponies to dreary, yet serene dystopias.

Ridley Scott's Blade Runner realized the most visually appealing sci-fi urban dystopia at the time. It floundered at the box office but it came back on home video and inspired other sci-fi works. It's been re-edited and re-released multiple times over the years. Now the story of sci-fi dystopia has finally continued on the big screen in Blade Runner 2049.

In the first movie, Blade Runners like Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) hunted down the biomechanical Replicants barred from Earth. In the titular year, Replicants like "K" (Ryan Gosling) are now welcome on Earth. That's because the blind mogul Niander Wallace (Jared Leto) made newer, more compliant Replicants. K is himself a Blade Runner who goes around "retiring" older models. K deals with one such Replicant (Dave Bautista) and finds a box of bones.

These bones were of a pregnant Replicant, which nobody thought was possible. This could give credence for Replicants to pursue their rights and thus, war. So K is ordered to find the Replicant offspring and retire it. K's investigation leads him to a conspiracy, a rebellion and eventually, Deckard himself. He also learns a lot more about himself along the way.

The film continues the technical standards set by Syd Mead, et al. in the first film. The production design and cinematography, by Dennis Gassner and Roger Deakins, visualizes Los Angeles as a dark metropolis that turns alluring at night. The LAPD building's so large it's like a domineering entity; what symbolism. It's amusing to see a future where Panam is still a thing. The costume and makeup designs are also elaborate displays. The sound design resonated with the pulsating sound effects and score. Hans Zimmer and Benjamin Wallfisch collaborated on the score and even incorporated bits of Vangelis's iconic score from the first movie.

A real deal-breaker is its extreme length of 164 minutes. If you came for an exciting action film, you'll have to wait a while. There is action but the main mystery plot moves along at a slow pace. Deckard himself shows up at about the 90 minute mark or so. The film goes on about the meaning of humanity and freedom as much as the first film. There was some logic I didn't understand at first but I got over time. Overall, its themes were better developed than Ghost in the Shell, whose manga source material was inspired by Blade Runner.

What about the characters? The actors were all capable in their roles. K's quest to find his personal identity made the length bearable. His hologram girlfriend, Joi (Ana de Armas), was a likable and endearing character. Wallace was weird and proved himself a scumbag. His Replicant assistant, Luv (Sylvia Hoeks), seemed warm at first before she proved violent. Robin Wright was also great as K's gruff-but-good superior Lt. Joshi as was Dave Bautista as the opening Replicant, Morton. Harrison Ford did well as the weary Deckard in his small role. There's also a few cameos from the first movie, one of which was accomplished with eerily effective visual effects.

Blade Runner 2049 is as much a visual masterpiece as its revered predecessor. And like its predecessor, it's going to take some time to get used to. Once you do, you'll find an effective mystery film with strong twists and turns. The ending leaves the film on a strong note. See it on the big screen. Its three hours are slow but they are worth it.

My Little Pony: The Movie

I didn't think I would review My Little Pony: The Movie. I've never started on the current TV series, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, but I heard good things about it. I'm not what the internet describes as a "brony" (a fan of this franchise). But after a slow summer and few Oscar contenders at this point, I decided to review something. This looked harmless enough.

And I regret nothing.

So Princess Twilight Sparkle (Tara Strong) of Equestria, the land of Ponies and Unicorns and other critters, is holding a big Friendship Festival. Her fellow ponies, Rainbow Dash and Applejack (both Ashleigh Ball), Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie (both Andrea Libman), and Rarity (Tabitha St. Germain), are here to help. Spike (Cathy Weseluck), Twilight's baby dragon personal assistant, is here too.

The bad mare Tempest Shadow (Emily Blunt) crashes the party on the orders of the evil Storm King (Liev Schreiber). Storm King wants the magical power of Equestria's four princesses for himself. Tempest petrifies the other three princesses but the "Mane 6" (and Spike) escape. Twilight and her friends have to find a few hippogriffs who might help them save the day. There's a colorful cast of characters along the way like Capper (Taye Diggs) the slick cat and Captain Celaeno (Zoe Saldana) and her sky pirates. How will our heroes' friendship survive this big screen adventure?

The movie hopes you're at least familiar with the TV show and its cast. Fortunately, the movie doesn't leave one drowning in a sea of continuity. The Mane 6 (and Spike) have personalities as colorful as their pastels. You'll get a sense of who they are and their relationship to each other when they appear. The other Equestrian Princesses require a lot more explanation but you can tell they're important. The voice cast perfectly define their characters and it's especially impressive for those who double-up characters.

The new characters are also well-defined by their celebrity voice actors. It's great to hear Liev Schreiber and Michael Pena (as Tempest's hedgehog lackey, Grubber), ham it up in their roles. Emily Blunt's Tempest Shadow is an outstanding villain with a believable sad backstory and heel-face turn. Kristen Chenoweth is also great as the hippogriff Princess Skystar.

The main selling point for me was the 2D animation. You don't see many of these on the big screen anymore unless you live in a big city. So that's one point in its favor. Its bright, vibrant, lively drawn characters in dynamically shot environments look outstanding on the big screen. Effects like Rainbow Dash's trademark "Sonic Rainboom" and Tempest's lightning attacks are visual highlights.

It also helped that it had a great soundtrack. Daniel Ingram and Michael Vogel, veterans of the TV show, composed the film's musical numbers. They're all addictive even if one's tired of hearing songs about friendship and stuff. Tempest's haunting villain song Open Up Your Eyes, is a sad anti-friendship song. The rousing number Time to be Awesome is my personal favorite of the tracklist. The singer Sia contributed a number sung by her character, a singing pony named Songbird Seranade, which concluded the film. 

So is My Little Pony: The Movie a yay or a neigh?  It's an obvious yay. It's a well-defined tale of good vs evil that doesn't solve things with fisticuffs. The characters are fun, the tone is affable and the ending is predictable but satisfying. It's a fun ride for ponies of all ages.

It opens with an animated short for Hasbro's newest girl-centric toyline, Hanazuki: Full of Treasures. I didn't really know who the characters were but the ending was pretty nice.