THE AUTOPSY OF JANE DOE

Emile Hirsch     Brian Cox     Ophelia Lovibond     Olwen Catherine Kelly

          This thriller gets into the supernatural, along with the standard thunderstorm, bumps, and other strange happenings during the night.  Tommy (Cox) is the town’s coroner and has a mortuary business, employing his son Austin (Hirsch) as a medical technician.  They seem to be getting along reasonably well after the death of Austin’s mother, but Tommy is itching to venture out into the world.  He hasn’t had the nerve to tell Tommy yet, because he feels an obligation to stay and help his father.  He has a girlfriend, Emma (Lovibond), who is pressuring him to tell his father and follow through with their plan to relocate.

           The men have just received four bodies from a burning house, and already find some puzzling signs.  On top of that, the sheriff brings in another body that was half buried in peat in the basement.  This is even more puzzling, and it gets weirder as they proceed to do an autopsy.  For starters, there are no outwardly visible signs of trauma, despite broken bones and internal injuries.  They decide to work through the night because the sheriff needs answers by the next morning.

           The beginning of the story written by Ian B. Goldberg and Richard Naing takes time in developing the characters and setting up the mystery and alarming events that are to follow.  As Tommy is conducting the autopsy, we’re privy to his findings and the questions that arise.  This is very interesting to observe; however, he does seem to be going through the steps of an actual autopsy, so the squeamish might consider whether he/she is up to the film. 

           Norwegian Director Andre Ovredal and his staff know how to put together a horror film in terms of pacing, sound effects, camera action, and maintaining suspense, sprinkling in just enough reality-based effects to make the story more plausible.  Hirsch and Cox have good rapport, convincing as a father-son duo, and showing sheer terror when it looks like they’re trapped and being pursued by supernatural forces.  With virtually all of the scenes taking place in the confines of the morgue, the claustrophobic sense enhances the horror.  As the corpse, actress Kelly maintains utter stillness (a function of yoga practice) in her body staring blankly ahead with gray eyes.

          The movie should keep horror fans happy and scared within its well-crafted story telling, sound effects, camera action, and solid performances.

A creepy thriller that captures your interest as you learn about autopsies, even while you wish to escape the claustrophobic atmosphere.

Grade:  C+                                    By Donna R. Copeland

PATRIOTS DAY

Mark Wahlberg     J. K. Simmons     Kevin Bacon     John Goodman     Michelle Monaghan     

Jimmy O. Yang     Alex Wolff     Themo Melikidze

       A dramatic account of the 2013 bombings at the Boston Marathon refreshes our memory of what happened that day and the investigations to find the perpetrators that followed.  It’s fascinating and informative to see how the rescue and investigation proceeded, and how quickly the suspects were identified with security cameras.  With that information in hand, a police officer knowledgeable about the area knew where to look for them.  There was disagreement initially among the FBI and city/county/state officials about when to release the names, but as soon as they did, they began to get leads.  (The FBI preferred to withhold the names so as not to tip off the bombers and allow them to escape.)

        The film gives us glimpses of some people’s lives beforehand, such as Sgt. Tommy Saunders (Wahlberg) who had been temporarily suspended from the force, some of the victims, and the Tsarnaev brothers, the bombers.  This helps make the shock more real and important to us, and gives us a glimpse into how private lives are affected (tragically, sometimes) by civic duties.  The most dramatic of these is when the Tsarnaevs on the run hijack a car driven by a student (Yang) whom we’ve been introduced to earlier as a son talking to his family in China and to his friends.  Dzhokhar (Wolff) and Tamerian (Melikidze) Tsarnaev are shown to be bumbling and argumentative in their execution of the terror and their attempts to get away.  In the aftermath of the explosions, it’s eerie to see them at home watching TV reports of their work, and Tamerian sending Dzhokhar to the store on an errand.

       Peter Berg, the director, moves the story along, with frequent cuts—sometimes so frequent it makes you dizzy—but covering the scope of the massive event well, including preparations for the race and some of the back stories, law enforcement during the race, the bombings and chaos that followed, the rescue, and finally the investigation and pursuit of the criminals.  There is an especially interesting interrogation of the older Tsarnaev’s wife by the FBI.  It did not produce much information, but showed the FBI’s expertise in connecting with someone to elicit information.

          No one character really stands out, although Sgt. Saunders seems to turn up at every important event.  Wahlberg’s performance is not as outstanding as in some of his previous work, although it is adequate, and it could be that the writers/director wanted a lower key persona for this role.  Experienced actors in supportive roles that measure up to their reputations include J. K. Simmons, Kevin Bacon, John Goodman, Alex Wolff, and Michelle Monaghan.  Relative newcomer Themo Melikidze playing the older Tsarnaev is entirely convincing.

A reminder of the fateful day in 2013 when two brothers wreaked havoc in Boston during the marathon.

Grade:  B                                    By Donna R. Copeland

LIVE BY NIGHT

Ben Affleck     Elle Fanning     Brenda Gleeson     Sienna Miller     Zoe Saldana     Chris Cooper

Remo Girone     Robert Glenister     Chris Messina     Miguel Pimentel

         Does crime pay?  Live by Night seems to be addressing this issue, but the reasoning and events used to talk about it are complicated.  Joe (Affleck) is rebellious toward his father (Gleeson), a Boston police captain, and a bit jaded after a stint in the Marines during WWI, saying that he is no longer going to take orders from anyone.  As a reaction to these situations, he chooses a life of crime to support himself, much against his father’s advice, of course.  But the irony is in what he finds when he is caught between two warring crime bosses; father figures ordering him around—in spades.  And he also finds that now the stakes are much higher, and his vow not to kill anyone else becomes increasingly impossible.

      Joe is extremely naïve in the beginning of the story, and easily becomes fatefully involved with the girlfriend of the first big boss, Albert White (Glenister).   Emma (Miller) is coquettish and he is easily entangled in her web.  He just about loses his life as a result, but is rescued at the last minute, although he does have to do some time in prison.

        Just why he again makes a bad choice when he gets out is not explained—a fault of the writing.  That is, a boy who seemed to come from a “good” family with basic values is somehow attracted to a life of crime?  There is nothing in the script about the character that accounts for this.  But say it’s simply money; he doesn’t know how to make lots of money without participating in the alcohol trade during Prohibition.  Let’s just go with that.

         Competing drug lords Albert White (Glenister) and Maso Pescatore (Girone) recognize his skills, and recruit him; first, White, then Pescatore.  He is able to keep from killing when he is with White, but with Pescatore, that option is not open.  Not only must he deal with competition in business, but he eventually has to deal with the Ku Klux Klan in Florida.  The ante keeps increasing for this unfortunate character until he thinks he has finally reached a solution.

           Another complication Joe encounters in Florida comes in the form of a sexy Cuban, Graciela (Soldana), who supports pro-Cuba revolutionary causes.  She will be his redemption both emotionally and legally.  At last, he finds through her a path that will free him from his baser instincts.  But there are major twists in the story on up to the end.

         Affleck co-wrote, produced, and directed Live by Night, and after his success with Argo and winning numerous awards, this film is something of a disappointment, which has to do with a host of problems.  The main characters are not well fleshed out; the sound quality makes it difficult to understand the dialog sometimes, and the logic of going from Point A to Point B in events as well as the characters is weak or absent.  Affleck’s own performance is thin, not nearly as powerful as much of his earlier work in Gone Girl, Argo, and The Town, for instance.  Perhaps it’s just a matter of time and attention; he has numerous projects in development and in production.

          Turning in good performances are Elle Fanning, Brendan Gleeson, Zoe Saldana, Chris Cooper, Ramo Girone, Robert Glenister, and Chris Messina.  Robert Richardson (Hateful Eight World War Z, Django Unchained, Hugo) is a wizard with the camera, and the music of Harry Gregson captures the period.

A gangsta movie for gangsta fans.

Grade:  C                                    By Donna R. Copeland

MONSTER TRUCKS

Lucas Till     Jane Levy     Rob Lowe     Danny Glover     Barry Pepper

          For a completely fantastical (i.e., unrealistic) experience, go see Monster Trucks.  The story is predictable, with a teenage boy named Tripp (Till) taunted by a rude classmate; ignored by his irresponsible father; disdained by his mother’s boyfriend, Sheriff Rick (Pepper); thwarted by evil corporation Terravex headed by Reece Tenneson (Lowe); and pursued by a pretty tutor named Meredith (Levy), a science geek. 

          When Terravex ignores environmental risks in drilling for oil, observed by one of their scientists, it proceeds to drill anyway, which disturbs the habitat of a species new to science.  One, named “Creature” by Tripp, escapes the company’s creature catcher and makes its appearance at the teen’s job in a wreck yard.  After brief transactions, Tripp decides the creature is smart and friendly, and he makes a friend of it.  It helps that Creature has social sensibilities and is affectionate.  This friend will do amazing things for Tripp, including navigating a monster truck MacGyverred by Tripp from one of the junkyard trucks. 

          Meredith is trying desperately to have a tutoring session with Tripp, and since she is smart and curious, she tries to help him figure out how to protect Creature and build his longed-for truck at the same time.  She offers scientific facts that are helpful to Tripp and provides a place for him to work undisturbed.  He’s a pretty clueless kid, and is so preoccupied with his project he doesn’t even notice when he starts to fall in love with her in a day or so.

         What follows is a series of car chases involving more monsters in trucks pursued by the sheriff (Tripp’s stepfather) and the evil creature catcher.  Powered by Creature, the truck can leap over buildings and trains, go through narrow alleys by making its sides climb partway up the walls, and go for days without sustenance (which is oil, by the way). 

       There is an inherent contradiction in a story that is supposed to be ecologically sympathetic—that is, that the monsters’ primary food is oil, and the featured trucks are gas-guzzling monsters themselves.  So much for ecology and the preservation of animal habitats.

          One of my pet peeves in movies about teenagers is that the actors are frequently too old to be plausible for that age.  It’s a bit ludicrous to see Tripp (played by an actor 26-27 years old) sitting in his old truck acting out scenes of a truck driver shifting gears with all the sound effects of gunning motors, brake screeching, etc.  Actress Jane Levy—his girlfriend—is even older.  There are hundreds of talented teenage actors; so why moviemakers employ 20 and 30 year-olds to be teenagers doesn’t make sense.  Another inconsistency in the story is the abrupt shift in the character of the sheriff from a cold, derisive grown-up with no respect for Tripp in the beginning, to his suddenly being a helpful father figure in the end.  We’re given no explanation for this transition.

       The primary flaw in this production is a script (by Derek Connolly and Matthew Robinson) that is nonsensical and not readily identified for any age group.  Although visually it appears to be for very young children, much of the narrative will go over their heads and bore them.  Despite a big budget, the producers and Director Chris Wedge were not able to mold the project into a meaningful, entertaining whole.

Someone thought that trucks powered by monsters to look like monster trucks would be a clever premise.

Grade:  D                                    By Donna R. Copeland

THE BYE BYE MAN

Douglas Smith   Lucien Laviscount   Cressida Bonus   Michael Trucco   Faye Dunaway   Doug Jones   Jenna Kanell

         There are plenty of chills and thrills in the horror called The Bye Bye Man.  Devotees of the genre may find it too derivative of so many other haunted house productions, but one such viewer I sat with at the screening thinks it is great.

         The movie opens with three college students wanting to move out of the college dorms into an off-campus house.  It looks like it’s in disrepair, but after finding furniture in the basement, the three decide to take it.  Elliot (Smith) and Sasha (Bonus) are a couple, and John (Laviscount) is Elliot’s best friend from childhood.  Soon after they move in, they throw a party, and Sasha invites her psychic friend Kim (Kanell) to conduct a séance because the house is a bit creepy, especially after she and Elliot have heard strange noises from time to time.  Sasha hopes that Kim will be able to give them more information so they can “cleanse” the house.  Elliot is skeptical about psychics and séances, but after he hears scratchings one night, and finds evidence of those scratches on the brick in the backyard the next morning, he becomes more concerned.

        The strange happenings and hallucinations they begin to experience increase in the coming days, Sasha begins to develop a cough and feel fatigued, and John has some bizarre experiences with Kim.  Elliot decides to go to the school library and do some research, and Sasha talks to the owner of the house, but he dismisses her fears, saying she just needs to rest and take care of her cough.  Elliot does make progress in learning something of the history of the house, and the librarian gives him Dead File 69 (“dead file” means it was never published) written by a journalist named Redmond years before.

        From the previews, you know that “Don’t say it” and “Don’t think it” are like mantras spoken and written in various places as warnings.  Actually saying The Name will get you killed.  Special effects, visual effects, and the music of The Newton Brothers accentuate the eeriness of the situation and the fears provoked by it.  Director Stacy Title has paced the story well, and the actors are skilled in conveying their puzzlement and rank fear.  James Kniest’s cinematography is likewise of high quality. 

       The author of the novel on which the film is based—Robert Damon Schneck—is a freelance writer who enjoys delving into accounts in American libraries about witches, ghosts, strange beings and paranormal activity in our cultural history.  The Bye Bye Man movie is based on one of his books telling about “strange-but-true tales” (The President’s Vampire:  Strange-but-True Tales of the United States of America, 2005).  The film—which may not reflect the book in this sense—has a couple of weak points in its plot.  For instance, why can’t the people who have figured out what is going on simply tell the story without revealing the actual name?  How has the librarian escaped the fate of those who do say the name and has not been “infected” before her encounter with Elliot?  She must have spoken of the story before. 

          Despite some weaknesses, the story is engaging, and the quality of the filming seems good enough to please those who are into the horror genre.

Don’t say it.  Don’t think it.  These instructions will be clear soon after the start of the film.

Grade:  C+                                    By Donna R. Copeland

I, DANIEL BLAKE

Dave Johns     Hayley Squires     Sharon Percy

          An older man, widower Daniel Blake (Dave Johns), has survived a major heart attack and is told by his doctor that he should not return to his carpentry job yet.  This means he needs financial assistance, but bumps up against an unforgiving bureaucracy.  He is told that to receive benefits, he must be looking for a job when he is not supposed to be working; moreover, he must answer the same questions over and over and fill out the application online, despite the fact that he doesn’t have the foggiest notion about how to do anything on a computer.  While waiting to be seen at social services, he takes pity on a young woman with two children, getting the first person in line to let her go ahead.  This gets them both in trouble, and they are told to leave.  Thus develops the unlikely friendship between two people who try to support one another through the frustrating coming weeks.

       Katie (Squires) is new in Newcastle, having been forced to leave her previous apartment and supportive network in London.  She is having trouble getting a job to provide for her family, and must visit the food bank for supplies.  Since Daniel has handyman skills, he tries to make her apartment more livable, and she fixes meals for him, sometimes foregoing eating herself.  Additional dramas for the two include her arrest and Daniel getting mixed up in a neighbor’s questionable business.  But mostly, this is an indictment against the British system of social services for its inefficiency and lack of understanding for the people who need the services.

         Most of actor Johns' previous work has been in television, but he seems perfectly suited for this role as a practical, simple man who is honest and charitable toward others.  Squires is a perfect counterpart, bringing freshness and a kind of earnestness to the action.  This is a quiet film—as Ken Loach’s films tend to be—quiet, but forceful in advocating for the little guy and those victimized by larger forces in society. 

An eloquent plea for rationality and common sense in a system clearly not designed for those in need of its services.

Grade:  B                             By Donna R. Copeland

A MONSTER CALLS

Lewis MacDougall     Sigourney Weaver     Felicity Jones     Toby Kebbell     Geraldine Chaplin     Liam Neeson

          Recurring nightmares can be transformed into a fable to guide a 13 year-old boy in coping with his mother’s terminal illness.   A Monster Calls—originally a novel by Patrick Ness and realized in a movie with the same title by Director J. A. Bayona—uses Conor’s (MacDougall) nightmares to help him accept the anger inside him and face the reality of his mother’s condition.  In the wonderfully artistic, animated film (Cinematographer Oscar Faura, Production Designer Eugenio Caballero and the special effects crew), the Monster (voice of Neeson) is a yew tree near Conor’s house which comes alive as a huge gnarly monster.  The yew tree is considered to have healing powers, but we also find out later that this particular tree is meaningful to Conor’s mother.  Conor is very close to his mother (his father is far away in another country), and they have a special connection in their artwork.

          The Monster is not a gentle tree, it comes crashing through Conor’s house breaking up everything in its wake with fiery eyes at exactly 12:07 am.  It will appear three times to tell him a story, and at the fourth time, Conor must tell his story.  Conor resists it with everything he can muster, which is not what he does with the bully at school.  That’s because he is not ready to acknowledge the anger inside.  But after his mother tells him after the Monster’s first visit that the yew tree has healing powers, he asks the Monster for help in making his mother better.

        Each of the Monster’s stories produces a strong reaction in Conor that results in destruction, anguish, and agonizing over their meaning.  The Monster’s answers to Conor’s insistent questions (“Who’s the good guy here!?”) involve paradoxes meant to help Conor evolve from his black and white view of people and the world to one that contains the complexities of life and human nature, e.g., “You meant it and you did not mean it.  Both are true.”

        An important component of the story is that after Conor’s acting out his anger in various ways, he is not punished.  Instead, when he asks in wonder why, he is told, “What could possibly be the point?”  Adults like his grandmother (Weaver), whom he detests, his father (Kebbell) and the head teacher (Chaplin) take it for granted that he is angry and needs to express it.  Kudos to these wise, insightful authority figures.

        A Monster Calls is in the genre of tales like “Hansel and Gretel”, where horrific fantasies are intended to teach principles that help children grow up.  It explicitly and forcefully shows the debilitating effects of cancer and its effect on the patient’s child/children, but it also offers an effective means for children to use to get through the experience.  Art has been shown time after time to be effective in helping children express their thoughts and feelings about illness, death, and loss.  This film beautifully presents a graphic representation of how/why that is helpful.

A raw, realistic look at terminal illness from a bullied child’s point of view, redeemed by a graphic illustration of what can help.

Grade:  A                    Donna R. Copeland