DOG

 Channing Tatum.    Kevin Nash.    Jane Adams

Army Ranger Briggs (Tatum) is messed up with head trauma and PTSD after his service in Afghanistan.  He’s begging to re-up, but can’t get permission from his supervisor.  He makes such a pest of himself, the captain sends him on a mission, and if he completes it successfully, Briggs will get what he wants.  How much the officer has insight into the value of his charge is unclear.  At any rate, Briggs is supposed to take the Army Ranger dog named Lulu that belonged to his fallen brother Riley to the man’s funeral down in Arizona, where the dog is to be honored for his exemplary service.

Before Briggs leaves for Arizona with dog in tow and during the trip, we get a picture of the man, as well as the dog.  He knows nothing about dogs or the power of persuasion, so he is in for a sometimes brutal trip, trying to use his bluster and macho personality to get the dog to behave and obey him.  Lulu can attack at any time with her sharp teeth and boxer-like paws.  She protests mightily to being left in the car and will run away the first chance she gets.

On  the road, Briggs decides he needs breaks and tries to use his usual means of entertainment—going to bars, carousing, and hitting up women with little more success than he has with Lulu.  He runs into a heap of trouble, but somehow along the way, he meets people who want to help him. 

And along the way, he begins to realize that he should listen to them, even if some are suspicious of him, practice Kundalini yoga, are psychic and downright kooky.  To his credit he can be personable and make friends easily.  Perhaps the most helpful is when he and Lulu are beginning to develop some rapport, and Briggs rewards her by driving by the house where Lulu’s brother lives.  The dogs recognize one another right away, and the caretaker of Lulu’s brother has many tips for Briggs.

Briggs encounters other obstacles—some really scary, some really comical—on his way and one wonders whether he will ever make it to Arizona and the funeral.  

The beauty of Dog is in witnessing Briggs’ gradual transformation of character and to see some of how Lulu and the helpful people they meet play a part.

Channing Tatum’s gifted acting draws the viewer into the drama, making it a real experience that is instructive as well as touching.  He knows exactly how to make the character he is playing charming, annoying, playful, contemplative, disgusting, and bright enough to get himself out of any scrape.  Strong support is provided by his fellow actors, Kevin Nash who plays a brute, his psychic wife played by Jane Adams, and others.

This is both Reid Carolin’s and Channing Tatum’s directing debuts, but it comes across as being directed by someone more experienced.  The soundtrack by Thomas Newman heightens this film’s value.

 And you thought a car trip with kids was trying!  Get a look at Lulu!  It’s amazing how she and the main character are able to make her therapeutic.

Grade:  B By Donna R. Copeland 

1917

George MacKay    Dean-Charles Chapman     Andrew Scott

Mark Strong     Richard Madden     Colin Firth     Benedict Cumberbatch

     Be prepared to run for all you’re worth with the characters over all kinds of terrain strewn with friendly and enemy soldiers and feel continuing tension for almost the entire film of 1917.  Director and writer (with Krysty Wison-Cairns) Sam Mendes and his cinematographer Roger Deakins made an excellent call in filming the entire adventure in essentially one continuous take.  With the immediacy of the story, it pulls the viewer right into the screen, and you are there.  

     In France in the first World War, two young Lance Corporals, Tom (Chapman) and Will (MacKay) are sent on a mission to Colonel MacKenzie (Cumberbatch) with the urgent message to cancel a military charge where, unbeknownst to MacKenzie, a trap has been set by the Nazis.  Will and Tom will have to cross a no-man’s land of dead bodies and through enemy lines to get by all kinds of dangers along the way, and they have only a few hours to make it.  The charge is given with a special incentive:  Tom’s brother is one of the 1600 men in MacKenzie’s company who will be killed if MacKenzie proceeds with the attack.

     Along with the script and direction, cinematography and music (Thomas Newman) are paired so seamlessly with the story they serve as sensory enhancements, intensifying the whole experience.  There are breathtaking scenes such as one at sunset when a soldier is sneaking through the sculpted forms of the remains of a bombed-out building, which Deakins has constructed to look like a morbidly colorful abstract painting.  The whole scene is heightened by the fear of being shot.  In this case, the music has unworldly sounds that give expression to the tension and fear.  Other times, there are sharp contrasts between the horrors encountered along the way and snow-white cherry blossoms wafting in the breeze or come upon in a host of trees felled by the Germans.  

     Another feat in this film is the production design (Dennis Gassner) and the creation of miles of military encampments, abandoned encampments complete with rats, and a bombed out building where a young woman and an abandoned child are sheltered with one candle burning brightly.  And much later on, we witness a contrast with a camp of British soldiers listening to one of their own singing the popular American folk song, “Wayfaring Stranger.”  

     The paradox of 1917 is in its graphic description of the horrors of war coupled with the visual and lyrical beauty in which the story is presented.  A late bloomer this year, 1917 may be at the top of more than one list in the upcoming award season.

Heroics are paramount in 1917, but the visual and musical enhancements and the brief, tender moments, altogether, earn it a place on the “must see” list.

Grade:  A                                    By Donna R. Copeland

SPECTRE

Daniel Craig   Christopher Waltz   Lea Seydoux   Monica Bellucci   Ralph Fiennes   Ben Whishaw   Andrew Scott   Naomie Harris

          Increasing surveillance across the world and across institutions becomes the theme in Spectre, the latest James Bond adventure.  It would make George Orwell turn over in his grave, observes M (Fiennes) to O (Scott) after O reveals his plan to get 13 countries to agree to share their intelligence information with one another.  And we agree when we see an attempt to extend surveillance inside Bond’s brain later on to destroy certain memories.

        Now, however, Bond (Craig) is in hot water with his chief, M, after taking it upon himself to stop a terrorist attack in Mexico City.  Granted, there was considerable damage and bad press, which Bond doesn’t deny.  It’s just that his superiors are not aware that he has prevented a terrorist plot from coming to fruition.  That is, he has gotten onto the current scheme of his old enemy, Oberhauser (Waltz), who seems to have disappeared, but maybe not.  Knowing he is up to no good, Bond is determined to find him and sabotage his plans. 

        This will involve trips through multiple countries, leaving a trail of destruction behind, including humans, buildings, cars, helicopters, and planes.  When Bond calls on a Mr. White in an isolated cabin in wintry Austria, whom he thinks can lead him to Oberhauser, he has to promise to protect the man’s daughter, Dr. Madeline Swann (Seydoux).  Her life is in danger after White began to have second thoughts about the activities of Spectre.  But he also gives Bond information about how to locate Oberhauser.

       In many ways, Spectre is like the previous films in the series with the super heroic protagonist, the electronic gadgets in labs and cars, the need to buck the bureaucracy, thrilling car/helicopter/plane chases, unbelievable hand-to-hand combat, and beautiful women.  Unfortunately, when these components are repeated over and over in films across the years without much creativity, they get a ho-hum response.  As my friend and editor Evan Zimmerman observed, “If the filmmakers would spend less money on special effects and invest more in the script, it would be a much better movie.”

      There are clever jokes and quotable quotes sprinkled throughout the story, such as, “She wouldn’t let death get in the way of her job”, spoken by Bond about M (Judi Dench), who died in the last film, but left a message to Bond to listen to after her death.  There is a toast “To death”, spoken by one terrorist to another about a planned attack just before Bond shoots and kills them.  M tries to counsel O with “The license to kill is also a license not to kill”, advice that it not heeded.

      It may be that this franchise has run its course.  Daniel Craig has voiced his thoughts about it, implying that he doesn’t want to act in the next film, even though he has signed a contract for it.  The filmmakers (director Sam Mendes, the actors, musician Thomas Newman, and cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema) are all gifted, but unless they can bring more creativity to future productions, they run the risk of appearing dated.

Go if you are a diehard James Bond fan.

Grade:  C                                                   By Donna R. Copeland