Murder on the Orient Express

Kenneth Branagh, with his giant mustache, introduces Hercule Poirot to a new generation. And I have to say, it's a rather charming introduction. Murder on the Orient Express is essentially the same story as the classic murder mystery of the same name by Agatha Christie, although there are some slight alterations in characters as well as a few action scenes that were, well, unnecessary. If you have never read the original book, I would recommend doing so before the movie, because, as the cliché goes, the book is better than the movie. Either way, I promise I won't spoil it here even though the pleasure of the story is much more than figuring out "who done it."

At the beginning of the movie, Poirot is simultaneously solving a mystery in Jerusalem and complaining about his breakfast eggs not being perfectly shaped. When he solves the mystery in an unsatisfactory way for his employer, Poirot insists that justice demands it. Poirot sees the world in black and white, in right and wrong. His desire for perfect eggs for breakfast is not merely OCD; rather, he is essentially a Platonist. He desires good, perfection. Like Plato, he does not believe that this is a pipe-dream. Rather, he believes that the form of something is perfect but that it is also real, so he is striving to conform to the good, whether that is a breakfast egg that conforms most closely to pure eggness or whether it is justice that conforms most closely to perfect justice.

As any good reader or watcher of mysteries would expect, a murder soon occurs on the train. Poirot spends the rest of the story chasing clues and red herrings. But the story is so much more than figuring out who committed the murder. During the investigation, Poirot's own belief system is put on trial. By the end of the story, we, along with Poirot, are left questioning. Not only do we question whether justice was done in this case, but whether it is possible to actually know what justice is or even whether justice exists at all outside our subjective experience.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Murder on the Orient Express has an all-star cast and all of them are very good. However, I was not blown away by this film and I kind of felt like I should have been given the quality of the cast. There was some rather unnecessary additions of chase and fight scenes that I felt did not contribute to the story and maybe even detracted from it. Orient Express is supposed to be a very cerebral story and does not need these kind of scenes to add excitement. Still, I did have a good time watching this movie and I am glad to see that they are making a sequel, Death on the Nile. There are so many good Poirot stories out there with cinematic potential.

Caveat Spectator

The biggest concern is the scene where the body is shown. No wounds are displayed, but the murder victim's shirt is soaked through with blood. I think there was some mild language, but I can't remember. Over all, it was the kind of movie that families can watch together without too much concern.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly is set during the Confederate invasion of the New Mexico territories. The conflict serves as a backdrop to the main story, which is about three drifters who are just trying to make money any way they can. While none of them are soldiers, the war keeps impacting them, usually by getting in their way or giving them cover. When it is discovered that there is a buried Confederate treasure, all three characters will constantly alternate between helping each other and double-crossing each other to get at $200,000 worth of gold coins. (To put that in perspective, that's a cool $4.6 million in today's money.) What ensues is constant violence.

The movie constantly underscores the senselessness of violence. Each of these characters is attacked by nameless gunmen throughout the movie who are quickly dispatched. Innocent third parties are shot down without a second thought. Meanwhile, soldiers on both sides are slaughtered and no one on either side seems to have any purpose or cause they are fighting for. This is especially exemplified by the drunk Union captain, who's philosophy is whichever side "has the most liquor to get the soldiers drunk and send them to be slaughtered. . . he's the winner." Towards the end of the movie, there is a giant battle between both sides over a bridge that neither of them particularly want but can't live with the idea of the other side having. Both sides are under orders to keep the bridge intact, but two of the main characters manage to destroy it, causing the fighting to stop long enough for the two armies to go somewhere else to continue their senseless destruction of each other. Despite all this killing, nobody really feels any remorse or sorrow at either killing people or witnessing the death of their comrades. We never really learn the names of two of the three main characters. As the Union captain says, "It's easier with no names."

There is one contrast to the senseless violence. Mexican missionaries have a monastery and have opened their doors to anybody who is injured by the war, no matter what side they fight on. Each army is more than content to dump their wounded on the monks and the monastery is filled with such a crowd of soldiers that they have to share beds, even when one wears blue and the other gray. The peace of the monastery is nearly upset when Tuco discovers his brother who had become a priest. They briefly came to blows, but Tuco eventually leaves and goes back to what he knows: violence and theft.

Each of the characters is labeled on screen with the title Good, Bad, or Ugly. However, the morality of this world is so gray that it is not always clear what makes one character good or bad. The Bad seems to be more violent than the others, but all double-cross each other and deal violence. The Good seems to have earned his title merely by virtue of not killing those he double-crosses. But at the end of the movie, he rides off into the wilderness with the treasure he has managed to double-cross the others to get.

Rating: 4.5 stars

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly is the iconic spaghetti Western and it is easy to see why it is so highly esteemed. Despite the high amount of violence, it is truly a beautiful film. Sergio Leone is famous for his juxtaposition of extreme close ups with long shots. Nowhere is this put to better use than the final three-way showdown, which alone makes the movie worth watching. Combined with great performances from Eastwood, Wallach, and Van Cleef and the wonderful Morricone score, this is a true film masterpiece. My only real objection is that it feels over-long, clocking in at just under three hours long. This isn't the kind of film that I would just put on and watch for fun, but I would say that everyone should watch it at least once in their lives.

If you don't feel like this is the kind of movie that you want to spend three hours on, you have to at least check out the stand off scene at the movie. It's got that iconic Morricone theme and Leone's extreme closeups of the actors eyes and their guns cut with long shots that show the entire circle. You can find it on YouTube or elsewhere on the internet. It's masterful film-making.

Caveat Spectator

This movie definitely earns its R rating. While the violence is not terribly graphic, it is still pervasive and there is blood throughout. There is also a fairly intense scene where one of the characters is being tortured by having his eyes poked by somebody's thumbs. There is language throughout, although not as much as I would have expected in an R rated movie. A man's naked rear end is seen for about a second. It is implied at one point that a prostitute was raped, although nothing is ever seen or really mentioned.

The Best Movies of 2016

It's that time of year again. The Oscars are right around the corner and everyone feels like ranking things. As I'm sure everyone does when making a list like this, I have my regrets of films that I didn't get a chance to see before making this list. The two biggest regrets are Paterson and Hidden Figures. I'm also very curious about Scorsese's Silence, but I think I'd rather wait until the DVD comes out so that I can stop it if the violence gets to be too much. With those disclaimers out of the way, let's go ahead and get started with my favorite movies from 2016.

10. Sully

Sully tells the true story of the US Airways flight that successfully landed on the Hudson River with no casualties. I have to admit I was inclined to dislike this movie. But Tom Hanks was great as always. The part I liked most of all was the courtroom drama that played out over most of the movie. As an administrative hearing in front of a regulatory body (a quasi-court), it was a much different setting than pretty much every other courtroom drama on screen. I can't think of another similar example in cinema.

9. 10 Cloverfield Lane

I reviewed 10 Cloverfield Lane a few weeks ago (click here to read it). It's a scary movie that constantly has you (and the main character) questioning whether she has been put in this bunker by a psychopath or whether she has been rescued from an apocalypse. In addition, it avoids the horror trope of the helpless, stupid girl blundering into danger; Mary Elizabeth Winstead's character is smart and takes calculated risks to try to save herself.

8. Moana

Moana is a chief's daughter destined to become chief when he is gone. But when destruction is facing the island, her father's fear of the ocean overcomes him, leaving Moana to try to save her people by seeking out the demigod Maui. It would have been easy to turn this into a movie about Moana facing danger to find Maui and then having him fix everything. What makes this movie so great, however, is that in the end, Moana ends up being the hero and fixes everything herself– she doesn't need a man to save her. Add gorgeous animation and songs that will stick in your head forever and you've got a pretty great addition to the pantheon of Disney princess movies.

7. Hail, Caesar!

Hail, Caesar! is the Coen brothers' tribute to classic Hollywood. It's a witty comedy set during the McCarthy era when everyone in Hollywood was afraid of being labeled a communist. George Clooney's character is a mostly clueless actor who ends up assisting in his own kidnapping. The director, fearful of a scandal, arranges to pay the ransom and a boy scout like Western star gets involved too. There's a little bit of everything, including Westerns, musicals, sword-and-sandal Biblical epics, and even hints of film noir. I think it is probably being overlooked at the Oscars because it came out so early in the year, but it's funny and well worth your time.

6. Captain America 3: Civil War

Most of the Marvel movies don't have a whole lot beneath the surface besides spectacle and witty one liners. (Don't get me wrong – I love every single one of the MCU movies. There's nothing wrong with spectacle; it's one of the main things cinema can do that other mediums can't.) But Captain America 3, while having the requisite spectacle and witty one liners, also poses a moral dilemma represented by Captain America and Iron Man, namely, should superheroes be allowed to continue to use their nearly unlimited power in the way that they see fit or should they be required to have oversight. Unfortunately, I don't think the debate was really framed well in the movie because the accords that Iron Man supported were kind of a bad deal. But while I started being in favor of oversight (and still am), I found myself constantly shifting in my position between the sides in the conflict. To me, this is some masterful storytelling, because I'm not inclined to be on Captain America's side even without this issue, and even less so with this issue. But by the end of the movie, I was very conflicted because Cap was made such a sympathetic character.

5. Eye in the Sky

I almost forgot about Eye in the Sky for this list because I saw it over the summer (even though I reviewed it here) and mostly because IMDB listed it as a 2015 movie. But it wasn't released in theaters until 2016, so I think it counts for this list. And since my opinion is really the only one that matters on this blog, here it will remain.

Eye in the Sky is a powerful movie about the use of drone strikes against terrorists. Some of the decision makers support making the attack because the terrorists are building a bomb and will almost certainly use it very soon to kill many civilians. But attacking the terrorists will almost certainly kill the innocent child standing outside the building selling bread. The rest of the movie is spent trying to decide which of these approaches should be taken. The movie recognizes that both of these are powerful arguments and doesn't brush one or the other under the rug, but gives them their due. This is one of Alan Rickman's final performances and doesn't disappoint.

4. Sing Street

I had this third on the list until last night, when I watched it for the second time. I loved it just as much as the first time, but I had to admit that it ought to be below that other movie. But Sing Street filled me with delight, despite the moments of darkness throughout the movie. Conor falls for a girl who claims to be a model, so he decides to start a band to win her over. In the process, he finds that his band becomes much more than a means to get the girl; it becomes part of him. The darkness is real, whether it is bullying, economic hardship, Conor's parents separation, a priest that has determined to make Conor's experience at school miserable, relatives on drugs, hints of incest and child molestation on the part of Raphina's father, and the general difficulty of going through adolescence. But the characters are able to take all of this pain and chaos in their lives and apply it to their music and make art. Probably my favorite moment of 2016 film is in this movie. The group is making a music video and Raphina jumps into the sea, despite being unable to swim. Conor immediately jumps in and pulls her out and begins to scold her for doing it. "So why did you do that?" he demands. "For our art, Cosmo. You can never do anything by half." That line has stuck with me over the past month since I saw the film for the first time.

Besides the story, Sing Street also has great music. There are some 80s bands that they listen to throughout, such as Duran Duran, Hall & Oates, and The Cure. However, most of the songs are original. What's amazing is that they are both true to the sound of the period and actually good. I've had "Drive It Like You Stole It" going through my head nearly daily for a month.

3. La La Land

All the praise that has been heaped on La La Land is well-deserved. It is colorful, funny, romantic, and beautiful. As soon as the opening dance scene started on the Los Angeles freeway, I knew that I was going to love it. This is a movie jam-packed with nostalgia, both for older styles of music and film. La La Land is daring in both its willingness to try out an "outdated" movie genre and the twist ending. I can't wait to see this one again. I absolutely loved Ryan Gosling's character and his dedication to music, even if it's a kind of music that isn't popular today. There were so many great shout-outs to previous movies such as Casablanca, Singing in the Rain, Bringing Up Baby, Rebel Without a Cause (which like Mia, I'm ashamed to admit I've never seen) and all the Astaire and Rogers dance movies as well as to great musicians such as Wynton Marsalis and Hoagy Carmichael. I recently watched an interview on PBS where they showed clips from Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, and Gene Kelly and it reminded me once again why I loved this movie so much –– It's because I love the material it is honoring. If you haven't seen it, you owe it to yourself to do so.

2. Love & Friendship

By all rights, I probably ought to put this below La La Land. But this indie flick is a Jane Austen adaptation, and I am particularly weak to Austen adaptations (so long as they don't have Keira Knightley in them). I've now seen Love & Friendship three times and I enjoyed it all three times. The first time I saw it was in a theater with a large crowd from a local assisted living home. The laughter was contagious and I laughed pretty much from start to finish. Kate Beckinsale is perfect as the witty and charming seductress Lady Susan; despite her being a terrible person and horrible manipulator, you can't help falling under her spell a little yourself. Tom Bennett steals the show every time his fairly minor character is on screen. It's great fun and the perfect antidote to the temptation of Austen adaptors to over-romanticize. For Austen, humor was always the main goal in her books. "For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbors, and laugh at them in our turn?"

And finally,

1. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

Like I said, I'm a sucker for Jane Austen adaptions. Just kidding, this one was kind of terrible (although I must say that Matt Smith makes a great Mr. Collins).

1. Arrival

While I could have probably rearranged the top five on this list based on my mood for the day, Arrival is pretty solidly at the top. It's the story of a linguistics professor trying to solve the puzzle of an alien language so that first contact can go successfully. When you first start learning a language, nothing makes sense, but then you think you've got it when really you haven't. Gradually though, you really do have it and you suddenly realize that you get it. That was the effect that this movie had on me. I felt like my understanding was constantly being challenged and that things I thought I understood at first turned out to be a misdirection, but I gradually understood more and more until suddenly, just before the end, it all clicked. Like all good alien movies, Arrival is really about humanity. There is a real question as to whether humanity will be united or divided by the alien arrival. It's hard to talk about it without giving away spoilers, so I'll just say that Arrival is hard science fiction done right.

Honorable Mentions

Any list like this is going to have to leave off some films that other people probably loved. In fact, I loved some of these films too, just not as much as the ones on my list. I had to ask myself which movies really impacted me and which really stuck with me over time (which admittedly gives an unfair advantage to movies I recently saw). Here's some others I really liked but for whatever reason, didn't make the cut.

A Monster Calls almost made the cut and would be number 11, I guess. It's the story of a boy whose mother is dying of cancer. He lashes out at everything and everyone around him and is visited by Liam Neeson in the form of a tree monster to teach him. What I loved was that every adult, while disappointed in his behavior, does not try to make him stop being sad, but recognizes the importance of grief. I highly recommend checking out Alissa Wilkinson's review for Vox for a more in-depth treatment of it. Dr. Strange had great visuals and Benedict Cumberbatch, but ultimately was unable to distinguish itself from the mass of previous MCU movies. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children also almost made the list, but Burton, one of my favorite directors of all time, wasn't quite up to par. As is unfortunately often typical for him, I thought he got distracted by the brilliant and creepy aesthetic he was creating and let the story get away from him. Similarly, Kubo and the Two Strings was absolutely beautiful stop-motion animation but the story did little for me. Zootopia was fun and had a great anti-racist message, which unfortunately was undercut it by the events in the movie (in my opinion). And of course, I have to mention the much anticipated Rogue One, which I enjoyed a lot but which ultimately didn't sit that well with me. Likewise, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them was a lot of fun but an unnecessary addition to the Potter-verse.

10 Cloverfield Lane

In the past, I have been highly skeptical of the horror genre; honestly, I still am. However, Netflix's original show Stranger Things changed my perspective, if only a little bit. (If you haven't seen Stranger Things, stop doing anything else and go binge watch it right now. Right. Now.) I've started watching a few light horror movies and have enjoyed what I've seen so far. The kind of horror movie I am interested in is extremely limited. I don't care for the violence-as-horror subgenre, and I don't appreciate movies about demon possession (which I believe is in fact a real thing and not entertainment material). I also don't like jump scares, which I think are a cheap way of manipulating audiences. That leaves a small slice of psychological horror or monster movies that I'm interested in. After watching Stranger Things, I saw Super 8. From what I heard, 10 Cloverfield Lane was something that could fall into this narrow category.

I was not disappointed. The opening scene shows a young woman packing her things and talking on the phone. It is very ominous, with a powerfully foreboding score, close-up camera shots, and being unable to hear any of her conversation. She begins to drive somewhere and her fear becomes tangible as she drives through dark forests or nervously looks at people in a large pickup truck while she fills up on gas. Again, she heads out into the darkness only to get in an accident. When she wakes up, she is in an underground bunker with an IV stuck into her arm and her leg chained to the wall. Howard, the owner of the bunker comes in and tells her that there has been some kind of attack which has left the air contaminated and she can't leave. The rest of the movie turns on whether this is true or if she has been kidnapped by the kind of psychopath that kidnaps women and imprisons them in underground bunkers.

I don't want to say anything more about the plot, but 10 Cloverfield Lane will keep you on the edge of your seat all the way through. There is quite a twist at the end of the movie that I did not see coming at all. I suspect it might have been a little foreseeable if you've seen Cloverfield, but I haven't and frankly don't have any desire to. In the end, I'd say it's worth the trip down Cloverfield Lane.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Not too scary but scary enough; it fit the bill for what I'm looking for in a horror movie. Also, it doesn't have too many jump scares. Both John Goodman and Mary Elizabeth Winstead are great. John Goodman turns out to the perfect casting for Howard. He is a menacing and large figure that sometimes seems crazy or even possibly violent but is just as frequently friendly and sociable. I also love how Winstead's character turns out to be different from the stereotypical horror heroine. Instead of blindly wandering into danger and then panicking with no plan, she is cautious but brave when necessary.I also love the way the cinematography builds the sense of foreboding by close-ups or by having Goodman's character looming in the background. If you don't like horror at all, you probably won't like this either.

Caveat Spectator

The violence is pretty low, but there is some blood. There are a few disturbing images, including some dead and decaying pigs, and a very brief shot of a person dissolving in acid. Some language. 10 Cloverfield is pretty intense throughout. There is also the implication of the possibility of women being kept as sex slaves in the bunker, although it's never mentioned and really more assumed by the audience's knowledge about the reasons for young women to be kidnapped and locked in bunkers in real life.