Thighs Wide Shut

Us
Mirror Madness
Official Site | Trailers & Mo
R | 114 min

Jordan Peele likes his zones twilighted, and his third acts a bit twisted.  I appreciate that.  I like his efforts, his ideas, his attempts.  Not sure I fully love the executions.  I mean, he’s got the spirit, but let’s all stop trying to anoint him as the next Rod Serling, Alfred Hitchcock, or whoever they want to call him the next version of after only two movies that were merely good, not mind blowing

With Get Out, it was nothing really fresh, especially if one had ever read or seen The Stepford Wives.  If you saw The Stepford Wives, you’d be like, OK, nice little movie Get Out is, but really, nothing ALL that crazy to see here people 

His new one Us felt original (I hadn’t seen The Twilight Zone episode that inspired Peele until after the fact), and was certainly a step above Get Out, but after a strong eerie first act, I started to grow distant from the film in its blood-splattered second act, and didn’t fully buy into its third, where reveals are further revealed.  BUT, great visuals JP!  Love those hands across America!  And the double duty the actors had to pull – they shirley pulled it off!  But pulling a rabbit out a hat?  Sure, nice lil trick there, but it wasn’t exactly a treat I could fully bite into

Still, Peele’s stuff is appealing, and I’ll keep coming back, even if I’m not fully on board with it… yet!

Although I’m totally onboard with this boat!!!

Verdictgo: Jeepers Worth A Peepers

Us is you at a theater near… you!

and until next thyme the balcony is clothed…

Peterloo
Speak Loudly and Carry No Big Sticks
Official Site | Trailers & Mo
PG-13 | 154 min

Whenever writer/director Mike Leigh has a project in the works, I get super excited.  Sure, his movies aren’t Marvel spectacles, but that’s why I get excited, because they are the opposite of those.  Leigh’s films are intricate, fraught and tender character pieces, with a strong emphasis on character.  When I heard his next film was called Peterloo, I was like, ooooh, what’s that?  Is that Waterloo’s brother?  Is it somewhere on the Tube’s Bakerloo line?  Whatever, I was all in, regardless of what it was!

And what Peterloo was is something that takes Leigh far out of his wheelhouse, and into the wide open cities and countryside.  We could see this coming.  When he dropped his previous film on us, the excellent Mr Turner, his canvas was starting to expand outside of the modern day British home, and with his latest he goes for the gusto in a large ensemble piece about human rights and strife in early 19th century England

The talk here in 1819 is big and LOUD.  Any actor you see in this movie certainly brought Leigh their A-game and acted the SH$T out of whatever lines he gave them (Rory Kinnear gets the biggest A+ out of all the other A-gamers).  And I hung on every single word spoken.  The message was clear (and again, LOUD), but the whole felt more like pieces that never made a complete picture  

In the final act, the talk turned into action, where we learn what Peterloo was.  What started as a peaceful public meeting of the Nothern English people, who were sick of being ignored and under-represented in Parliament, turned into something horrid.  The local authorities in power sensed that the people and their assembly were a threat and so they issued arrest warrants for the meeting’s key speakers.  Calvarymen charged in to keep the peace, but chaos is what actually ensued.  It turned into a giant massacre, and Leigh’s film ends with bloodshed, and more questions than answers.  That’s probably the point, but as an American with little knowledge of English history and their civil rights, having things spelled out (how about some text at the end of what happened next) would have certainly helped.  Still, my ears are still ringing from all the big talk!  Let freedom ring, LOUD AND CLEAR!!!

Verdictgo: Jeepers Worth A Peepers

Peterloo talks the good talk in limited release

and until next thyme the balcony is clothed…

Cold War (Zimna wojna)
Love (In Post-War) Is Hell
Official Site | Trailers & Mo
R | 88 min

Moral of the story – if you ever fall in love with a super talented, super fine looking lady, but she’s a giant pain in the ass and will destroy your soul and probably make you do things like renounce your freedom and do forced labor, it’s probably not worth being in love with her in the first place.  But hey, look at that amazing b&w cinematography!  And now I finally know what language Borat got his ‘chenqui’ from!!

Verdictgo: Jeepers Worth A Peepers

Cold War warms things up in limited release

and until next thyme the balcony is clothed…

Vice

The Long Big
Official Site | Trailers & Mo
R | 132 min

What can I say about Vice?  Bale was amazing as Dick Cheney, but the main reason to see it is to see him in that transforming make-up and hair (or lack thereof), and those glasses.  The rest of the movie?  Bleeding liberal wanking, too much winking, too much trying to be an Oliver Stone movie, but basically being The Big Short of Dick Cheney, but coming up short this time in the presentation department.  And what’s the take away, anyways?  Hard to tell, other then I think the Cheneys are a nice family who have politics and practices that may be different from your own.  So what’s the point?  Don’t ask me, I didn’t make the movie, but sat thru it.  Maybe they should have stopped in the middle, with the faux credits.  That was clever.  But the rest of the movie was too clever for its own good, or it thought it was clever and it wasn’t good.  Again, hard to tell

Verdictgo: Sum Merit But No Stinkin Badgers

Vice clamps down currently in limited release

and until next thyme the balcony is clothed…

Mary Poppins Returns
The Old Disney Razzle Dazzle Made New
Official Site | Trailers & Mo
PG | 130 min

Everything’s a winner in Mary Poppins Returns, and purists should have no cause for alarm, and everyone else should have cause to see this, cause it’s pure Disney movie magic, in that old fashioned way we knew and STILL love.  Walt would be proud

First and foremost, Emily Blunt stepped into shoes that be so large that they were simply impossible to fill.  So I guess that means she did the impossible, because she made Mary P her own, with a bit of Julie Andrews’ spoonful of sugar, tossed in with a tad of author PL Travers’ bitter toughness.  Blunt’s Mary is, well, blunt.  She doesn’t take no sh!t, but also makes magic out of anything, even sh!t, but not literally sh!t

And the kids are great.  They’re wide-eyed enuff, and one of the kids has super-wide ears!  And the girl’s real name is Pixie Dust or something!

And the kids in the first movie are now grown up, and the perfect path for moving the story forward, in what is the loosest story they could go forward on (they don’t have money and may lose their house!  can anyone help them!).  And you cannot ask for better actors basically doing pointless acting as worrisome siblings than Ben Whishaw and Emily Mortimer.  I wish they were my dad and mum, or brother and sister, or husband and wife, or anything that would make me able to hug them.  I’d give Ben a mustache ride, and Emily any kind of ride she desires

Oh, and super annoying Lin-Manuel Miranda is super annoying (not sure why a guy who lights lamps has to appear in every scene, AND BE SO FCUKING HAPPY), but his super annoyingness actually works for this show-stopping show that does not stop.  He doesn’t stop!  HE WON’T STOP!!  And his pizzaz in the proceedings is infectious!  You’ll want to light lamps!  And imitate him, like…

Oh, and Colin Firth is a good baddie, and Dick Van Dyke and Angela Lansbury are old as fork, but you watch them twinkle and wish that you’ll be as spry and as with it as they are at age 93.  And even thought his character was kinda whatevs.net, it was nice to see David Warner.  I love David Warner.  You probably do too, but just don’t realize it.  And what about Meryl Streep?  How do you think she was??

And the songs?  I don’t remember any of them, but they were really good!  And when mixed with the 2-D animation, I literally felt like a kid again, on a Disney ride with no line, having the time of my life!

Verdictgo: mos def Jeepers Worth A Peepers

Mary pops at a theater near jews and white nationalists today

and until next thyme the balcony is clothed…