Quick Reviews, Winter 2017: Battle of the Sexes, My Friend Dahmer, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, The Hitman's Bodyguard, The Killing of a Sacred Deer

Battle of The Sexes

Battle of the Sexes (2017): The true story of the 1973 tennis match between World number one Billie Jean King and ex-champ and serial hustler Bobby Riggs.

I am such a sucker for these "against all odds" sports flicks. While this movie doesn't bring much to the table out of the ordinary, holy crap is it still a lot of fun. Featuring GREAT chemistry between Emma Stone and Steve Carell, (this is also my biggest complaint of the film.....these two did not get NEARLY enough screen time together) Battle of the Sexes is another very entertaining sports flick. The supporting cast is also strong, featuring great performances from Andrea Riseborough, Sarah Silverman, Bill Pullman, (he is AWESOME, by the way) and Alan Cumming. I also really appreciated the fact that the film went out of its way to not make Carell a "villain." That would've been very easy to do, especially in this setting, but co-directors Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris, and others do a GREAT job of showing that Carell was just playing a character. There's a great scene (and my favorite of the film) where Stone (playing Billie Jean King) has a conversation with Bill Pullman (playing the head of US Men's Tennis) in which she brings up this fact while TEARING down Bill Pullman's character. It was awesome. But, beyond that? There really isn't that much else going on in this movie. It pretty much plays out exactly how you expect it to, and there's some messy pacing in the first half of the film as it tries to balance tennis and King's romantic endeavors, but that's about it. See it if you love Emma Stone/Steve Carell, or like a good sports flick, but everyone else? There are other, better indie movies to see right now. Netflix this one.

My Number: 6/10

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My Friend Dahmer

My Friend Dahmer (2017): A young Jeffrey Dahmer struggles to belong in high school.

Wow. What a haunting film. I almost regret making this a quick review because there's a lot to talk about here. My Friend Dahmer is the haunting story of Jeff Dahmer's high school years. In this story we see Dahmer attempt to integrate himself with society. The film features the best performance I've seen so far this year out of the unlikeliest of actors. Ross Lynch plays Jeffrey Dahmer here, and if you haven't watched the Disney channel in the past few years you probably don't know who Ross Lynch is. But man.....you wanna talk about breaking out of the mold of being a Disney star? Try playing a serial killer! Jokes aside, Lynch's casting was a stroke of genius because he is bone-chilling as Jeffrey Dahmer. Lynch shows incredible attention to detail with his mannerisms, physique, and overall demeanor as the future serial killer. I mean this is my favorite performance of the year so far, and it may remain at the top of this list over the next few months. He carries this film, and if you're able to get past the subject manner of this haunting movie it's well worth a watch just for him. He also has a great character arc. With each passing scene we see Dahmer's transformation from a socially awkward kid to something much, much worse. The rest of the supporting cast is ok, and the pacing is a little messy, (especially in act 2) but this is still a great film that had me on the edge of my seat more often than not. This is a HEAVY watch, so brace yourself for that, but it's still a marvelously executed film featuring the best performance of the year so far. See it with confidence.

My Number: 8/10

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Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri 

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017): A mother personally challenges the local authorities to solve her daughter's murder when they fail to catch the culprit.

Geez! Another day, another fantastic performance. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri is a fantastic dark comedy from director Martin McDonagh. Personally, this is my first McDonagh experience, but after seeing this I have every intention of watching his other two films. This movie is fantastic! It stars Frances McDormand in a performance that would be my favorite of the year so far were it not for My Friend Dahmer, but then unlike that film this movie has an extremely strong supporting cast as well, led by Woody Harrelson, Caleb Landry Jones, (what a year he's had) Abbie Cornish, Lucas Hedges, Zeljko Ivanek, and Sam freaking Rockwell. These strong supporting casts seems to be a strength of McDonagh, as every character manages to feel unique and fleshed out, despite McDormand still being the star of the show. The story here is great. It focuses on themes of vengeance and aggression while still having a LOT of dark humor spread throughout. I mean, let me tell ya: this movie is FUNNY. It's tough to balance these when you have such a dark theme, but Martin McDonagh manages to do exactly that. It's not perfect, though. Abbie Cornish is sadly just "the wife" and doesn't have much to do, which sucks. Same with Sandy Martin, but damn is she funny. But they're still not as screwed over as Peter Dinklage is. He's only in this film for about 5 minutes! WTF? Additionally......at it's core, this movie is a whodunit. But we spend so much time not focusing on the whodunit it's as if in the last 20 minutes the movie said, "OH CRAP. We need to solve our whodunit story line!" and tacked it on at the end. The rest of this film is so good that we didn't really need to tack on the actual whodunit at the end of the film, but at least it went in an unexpected direction so even this was still enjoyable. But the meat of this film is McDormand's personal struggles, as well as the town (great production design, by the way) coping with these three billboards, and here it passes with flying colors. Make the time to see this one. It will likely garner some serious Oscar attention.

My Number: 8/10

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Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017): A dark force threatens Alpha, a vast metropolis and home to species from a thousand planets. Special operatives Valerian and Laureline must race to identify the marauding menace and safeguard not just Alpha, but the future of the universe.

GAH that's a long IMDB description. Ok here's the best way to sum up this film, in a single sentence: Incredible production design and visuals ruined by a terrible script and cringe-worthy acting from the leads. I like Dane DeHaan and Cara Delevingne. They've done great things in the past, and they will again in the future. But in this movie they are.....so.....bad. Now granted they aren't given much to work with as director/writer Luc Besson doesn't do them any favors, but there's no chemistry between the two of them, and DeHaan's attempt at being a "bad boy" just fails so utterly. That said, the film does offer some breathtaking visuals that makes me wish I saw this one in theaters. I would be SHOCKED if this film is not at least nominated for Best Visual Effects, because there's some of that in basically every scene. It really shines through in Rihanna's character introduction as she shuffles through dozens of costumes right in front of you for a few moments. Though I found myself asking "how did we get to this sequence?" because the transitions from one setpiece to the next are.....awful. It's so polarizing! One second you're laughing at the film for how bad the script is, the next your marveling at yet another incredible visual shot. If there is ever an example of watching a movie with the sound off, this is it. Flip it on during a party and check in and out of it to marvel at its visuals, and don't worry... you'll be able to follow along as well as someone who pays attention to every second.

My Number: 5/10

The Hitman's Bodyguard

The Hitman's Bodyguard (2017): The world's top bodyguard gets a new client, a hit man who must testify at the International Criminal Court. They must put their differences aside and work together to make it to the trial on time.

​It's funny that I saw this and Valerian back-to-back, because both have terrible stories, but while Valerian is awesome to look at, The Hitman's Bodyguard is charismatic as hell thanks to its incredibly charming leads. Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L. Jackson are FANtastic together. They have awesome chemistry and are absolutely HILARIOUS. They're worth the cost of admission, (them and Salma Hayek, who's also hilarious, even with some rather.....controversial humor) and you'll need them and their chemistry to get through this because everything else about this movie is awful. Well, some of the special effects and stunts are pretty cool. But what even is this story? Gary Oldman is a dictator that has the power to corrupt governments, get to any witness he wants, and (somehow) have no one with a brain realize he's behind it all, and the only one person can stop him..... a hitman who has a smoking gun like nobody would believe..... stored on the cloud? What? What is going on here? It's SO bad. Eventually I just gave up trying to figure this out and simply enjoyed Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L. Jackson being as charismatic as ever together. This movie reminds me of that Mark Wahlberg/Denzel Washington action movie from a few years back, 2 Guns. That was a movie that featured a lot of charisma and great interplay between its leads, but it forgot to have a script in the process. That's exactly what happened here. The crew got two charming and charismatic actors to play its leads and they are great together, but the movie forgot to have anything resembling a script as well. Laugh at their jokes and interplay, then forget about it two seconds after its done.

My Number: 4/10

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The Killing of a Sacred Deer

The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017): ​Steven, a charismatic surgeon, is forced to make an unthinkable sacrifice after his life starts to fall apart, when the behavior of a teenage boy he has taken under his wing turns sinister.

This film is.....something. Shot largely at Good Samaritan hospital in Cincinnati, (Hey I was born there!) this film is a very troubling and disturbing story that is based around something that many may not be able to wrap their minds around. Because of this, this film is not very approachable for most people. But if you can accept the fact that it's deeply disturbing and based around a supernatural problem, what we have here is a really good film that will resonate with you for weeks and even months to come. The film features some haunting deadpan performances from everyone involved, especially Barry Keoghan's character 'Martin'. This kid never changes the tone of his voice as Martin, and it drove me freaking mad. Not once! No matter what he said, his tone never shifted. Actually most of the lead characters never change their tone of voice throughout the film, but when you're talking about death and revenge, it's just a little creepier when you deliver a scathing monologue about reining down death and destruction without ever even remotely coming off as angry. Raffey Cassidy's character, 'Kim', is pretty creepy as well, as she's ultimately talking about the death of someone in their family and running away with Martin (a person whom she just recently met) in a very casual and nonchalant, deadpan way. These creepy performances (stars Nicole Kidman and Colin Farrell included) are what kept me engaged throughout the film, because boy was the story bizarre. I mean I understand what they were going for, but man.....the entire family's decent into madness is pretty brutal and tough to watch. Unfortunately though, this film commits a cardinal sin within the horror genre: it establishes a set of rules at the beginning then breaks them at the end. That was unfortunate, and made the ending rather disappointing, but still. These disturbing performances, and the madness that occurs (and resonates with you afterwards) is more than enough to make this a good film. See it if you like horror, but you have been warned.

My Number: 7/10