Air (05.19.23)

 

Last month I bought a pair of knockoff Hey Dudes at the local Costco, bringing my shoe collection up to a total of seven pairs, give or take a misplaced flip flop or two. I can afford more (thank you for asking and being concerned), but I would rather spend my money on literally anything else if I can help it because there are few things on this earth that I care about less than shoes. When I saw the trailer for Amazon Studio's Air in theaters I scoffed. When I saw the poster for Air I scoffed. This was the preconceived bias that I was bringing into the film when I begrudgingly sat down to review it, and although the movie did little to dispel this ambivalence towards shoes, I have to say… I really liked Air.

I felt a little gross watching Air because nothing screams soulless corporate sponsored art quite like a movie about Nike made by Amazon. Not only was I disinterested about shoes, but I was also disinterested in watching a feature-length commercial. But as films like The LEGO Movie have shown us in the past, sometimes feature-length commercials masquerading as movies can still be great movies in their own right. This turned out to be the case with Air, the story of how Nike signed the legendary Michael Jordan and created the Air Jordan line, a topic that makes me want to fall asleep outside of the context of Air, as much as I love and appreciate MJ himself (and not just because of Space Jam). The script, penned by Alex Convery, is punchy and sharp and does the impossible by making business talk engaging. The actors who bring it to life (Matt Damon, Jason Bateman, Ben Affleck, Chris Tucker, and Viola Davis, to name a few) do so in lively and convincing ways, making you root for them as if they were the true little guys instead of being mostly, you know, Nike executives.

Ben Affleck not only costars but also directs Air, once again proving that he is just as good behind the camera as he is in front of it. He does make one choice that adversely affects the film, however, and that is giving MJ himself very limited screen time and never showing his face. The logic behind this decision is sound— although he is obviously an important player in this story (pun intended), this is not an MJ biopic, plus we all know what MJ looks like, so showing a face that is clearly not his own and calling him Michael Jordan might draw people out of the illusion of the film—it does give the impression that MJ didn’t have much agency in the matter and reduces his personality to pretty much nothing. This is an odd choice considering the fact that much of the Air Jordan line was supposedly based around Michael Jordan’s charisma and personality, but ultimately this gripe doesn’t amount to much. For a short while Air made me care about shoes, and you won’t get a better recommendation than that.

Air is now available on Amazon Prime. 

 

This review was first published in the Keizertimes on May 19^th, 2023. Visit at www.keizertimes.com/

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (05.12.23)

 

When it was first announced that the C-List Marvel team known as the Guardians of the Galaxy would be getting their own movie, I was a bit skeptical, not to mention puzzled. While it was true that Marvel Studios had managed to turn lesser-known characters like Iron Man into silver screen hits in the past, this was a team that was not even that familiar to a lot of diehard comic fans. Surely the odd choice to invest time and effort into bringing these obscure characters to the big screen would be the still fledgling studio’s first real misstep in their still blooming cinematic universe. Well here we are, nine years later in a future where names like “Star-Lord” and “Groot” are household names, saying goodbye to the original lineup of space misfits in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, a beautiful, dark, and heartfelt sendoff that, like a good Zune playlist, hits all of the right notes.

One of the things that made the original 2014 film so successful was its blend of space opera drama and director/writer James Gunn’s tone-perfect sense of humor, a combination that is still very much in play in Vol. 3, if skewed a bit more to the latter this time around. While there are still funny bits, the story is one of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s darkest yet, thanks in no small part to the long-awaited exploration of the backstory of Bradley Cooper’s Rocket, the snarky raccoon with a taste for firearms. This backstory is brutal and sometimes hard to watch, and I’d be lying if I said it didn’t draw a tear or two from me, which it was clearly designed to do. Gunn and crew let these moments take their full emotional toll, which is especially nice given the wider MCU’s annoying tendency to lessen dramatic moments by capping them off with out of place jokes.

Another thing the Guardians films always get right are the pure spectacle—gorgeous CGI, well-choreographed fight scenes, and giant set pieces, all of which are present and accounted for in Vol. 3. At two-and-a-half hours it can all be a bit exhausting at times, especially past the two-hour mark, but it never really felt excessive, nor did it overstay its welcome. Because when it comes down to it, Guardians of the Galaxy has really been about the characters, and they are characters that are a whole lot of fun to spend time with thanks to fantastic performances across the board, from returning veterans who at this point wear their characters like a second skin (I have to laud the spectacular voice acting of the aforementioned Bradley Cooper in particular) to team newcomers to Chukwudi Iwuji’s brilliant turn as the High Evolutionary, one of the most irredeemably evil villains in the entire MCU franchise (which, I may remind you, has had literal Nazis in it as well as a giant purple man who successfully killed half of the universe). 

I really can’t imagine a better sendoff for these loveable idiots.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is now available in theaters.

 

 This review was first published in the Keizertimes on May 12th, 2023. Visit at www.keizertimes.com/

Boston Strangler (04.28.23)

 

I am of the opinion that when it comes to creating an engaging film the basic premise is one of the least important factors. This sounds a little contradictory, but when you have a good writer, talented actors, and a creative crew, “kids in detention getting to know each other” can become The Breakfast Club and “twelve people have jury duty and talk all day” can become 12 Angry Men. This is one of the reasons it is so disappointing for the opposite to happen: A movie being boring despite having an interesting premise. This describes Boston Strangler to a t, because despite its real-life story of murder and professional empowerment, decent acting, and adequate script, the film is ultimately just as boring and unengaging as the name implies. 

Movies based on true stories can be a little tricky, as life is often more mundane than fiction, but you also shouldn’t go too far when spicing up the truth for an audience looking to be entertained. I don’t know much about the actual story of the Boston Strangler, but I imagine this film is pretty true to what actually happened, as any possible spicing up blends in so perfectly with the blandness of the rest of the movie that it all appears as one plausible yet tedious blob. Boston Strangler may be based on a true story, but there is nothing in it that has not been done more interestingly in other films, be they completely fictional ones or other partial adaptations of events that actually happened. This actually led me to wish there were clearer liberties taken in the name of audience engagement, something I don’t usually do-- anything to make the experience more interesting.

Outside of the humdrum familiarity of the plot (murder happens, investigation happens, another murder happens, repeat until “where are they now” text pops up right before the end credits) and characters (Keira Knightley tries to break into investigative reporting in a man’s world, gets obsessed with her work, her marriage suffers as a result), I am not entirely sure why Boston Strangler was so unmotivating to me, as all of its separate parts are somehow much more than its sum. The acting is good, and not once did I find Keira Knightley’s American accent silly or unnatural. The script is believable, the cinematography occasionally ambitious if sometimes a little distracting. I guess there was music, although that might have just been me humming to myself as I tried to keep my mind from wandering. Overall there just isn’t anything exceptional about any of it; I’m even having a difficult time writing this review, because though I watched Boston Strangler less than twenty-four hours ago I’ve already forgotten nearly everything about it, and the things I do remember may or may not actually be memories of things that happened in much more engaging true crime movies like Zodiac.

Needless to say, I’d go ahead and skip this one unless you are a true crime fanatic with a lot of time on your hands.

Boston Strangler is now available on Hulu. 

 

This review was first published in The Keizertimes on April 28^th, 2023. Visit at www.keizertimes.com/