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By Hector Valverde
Disney’s Mulan from 1998 is arguably the best of its entire animated collection. It’s a beautiful, lovingly animated story told with a powerful message, one only made better by an impeccable soundtrack ranking amongst the studio’s greats. In 2020, it was only a matter of time before the film got adapted into live action. How has it translated? Well, I just burned $30 on premium VOD to be able to tell you you definitely shouldn’t. [Read more…]
Samara Weaving, Alex Winter, Keanu Reeves, and Brigette Lundy-Paine in Bill & Ted Face the Music (Orion)
By ABQ Live writer Hector Valverde
As one of the first big-name productions finding its way into the wave of re-opening theaters, all eyes have landed on the film to not only cap off the Bill & Ted trilogy, but also give us all a reason to venture out to our AMCs, Regals, Cinemarks, and the like.
Full disclosure, I watched the film on my TV on demand. And while I do wonder if the medium of my viewing ultimately had an effect on my vibe with the film, I found Face the Music an unfortunately not excellent, most bogus experience, dude. [Read more…]
By Hector Valverde
There’s always that one sad movie that gets left out or forgotten in the cascade of prestigious releases rushing to score Oscar nominations at the end of the year. Despite featuring a great cast and a compelling story, Just Mercy is only a mediocre film that gets left in the dust of other, much better movies.
Just Mercy follows the real-life case of Walter McMillian, a black lumberjack put on death row after being wrongfully accused of killing a white woman. After moving to the Deep South to represent convicts without resources, newly graduated lawyer Bryan Stevenson fights to repeal McMillian’s sentence before his execution.
Michael B. Jordan (Stevenson) and Brie Larson (his assistant Eva) are wasted; they’re given the bare minimum amount of personality to pass as characters despite being billed as a big selling point for the film. Meanwhile, Jamie Foxx gives a halfway decent supporting performance as McMillian, but his solid work is mostly lost in a boring, uninspired, blatantly obvious piece of Oscar-bait that seldom bothers to differentiate itself from other similar work.
From its cookie-cutter characters down to its story and general narrative, everything about Just Mercy has already been told dozens of times in significantly more interesting and affecting films; there’s not a lot of moving substance or emotion in its storytelling to compensate. The end stinger paying tribute to the people behind the true story hits harder than anything else preceding it, mostly because the majority of the film goes for the easiest, most overused tropes and emotional appeals in the melodramatic-handbook.
Despite having good intentions and more than solid material to tell a moving, sadly timeless narrative about racial injustice, the film instead comes across as preachy with its forced and lame attempts at greater thematic depth. It’s a shame, too, because writer and director Destin Daniel Cretton has previously proven himself with great work in his two excellent collaborations with Larson, Short Term 12 and The Glass Castle.
Grade: C
For more current film and television reviews, follow Hector Valverde on Twitter @hpvalverde.
By Hector Valverde
There’s a brilliance to the simplicity with which Sam Mendes crafts his WWI epic, 1917. Mendes juggles some of the most impressive technical demands put into cinema in the last decade. The simple solemnity the story is told with batters the screen and soul with an affecting resonance that lingers long after the credits have rolled.
George MacKay and Dean-Charles Chapman lead as Lance Corporals Will Schofield and Tom Blake, two British soldiers tasked with delivering a critical message to another battalion across occupied northern France. Traversing through no man’s land at the mercy of enemy troops and the elements, Schofield and Blake race to call off an attack on German forces that would undoubtedly result in failure and over 1,600 allied deaths—Blake’s brother among them.
Everything in 1917 comes together to create an incredible cinematic experience that won’t be soon forgotten. MacKay and Chapman are excellent as young heroes; their sincere rapport and sense of friendship seamlessly extends onto the battlefield in a moving story about duty and purpose.
The legendary Roger Deakins’ cinematography—meant to look like two continuous long takes—is extraordinary. He moves the camera in ways and into places one would never think possible. The cinematography is graceful and flawless alongside Mendes’ urgent, high-octane direction and the huge, expansive practical outdoor sets. The film doesn’t even let you have a moment to think about how they pulled everything off—complete and total immersion fully take over. The clear-cut, single-minded simplicity makes the film’s narrative a thoroughly investing and engrossing watch, even more so as the creative team pushed cinematic limits to new heights.
Additionally, it’s a testament to Mendes’ vision how impactful the film’s punches hit. 1917 is directed with tonal expertise, grounded by the weight of its characters’ mission. When the film goes big, its moments never feel grandiose or like spectacle, just unnerving and dire. As dozens of corpses quietly bob in the water and the empty presence of a long-destroyed town takes over the screen, Mendes neither glorifies nor brings showy attention to these grim remnants. Simultaneously telling a story about the horrors of war with a universal touch that transcends beyond its historical and genre roots masterfully.
2019 movies feature a packed crowd in the acting categories, but the two leads stand out as some of the best of the year. Particularly the ever-dynamic and furiously dedicated MacKay, who is forced to inhabit the sparsely populated wastelands on the screen by himself for the majority of the film.
Cold and level-headed, 1917 is the war movie to end all war movies. On top of returning a long-unprecedented technical scope to the big screen, Sam Mendes’ film is a powerful portrait of family, bravery, and duty in the face of all the casualties war reaps.
Grade: A
For more current film and television reviews, follow Hector Valverde on Twitter @hpvalverde.
If there’s one thing that goes well with a good movie, it’s a good beer. You can get all that and more at Flix Brewhouse. Enjoy images from one of ABQ-Live’s movie nights at Flix Brewhouse.
