SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY

Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)

Rating: 7.5/10

Starring: Alden Ehrenreich, Woody Harrelson, Emilia Clarke, Donald Glover, Thandie Newton, Paul Bettany, and Erin Kellyman, with Joonas Suotamo as Chewbacca and Featuring the Voices of Phoebe Wallter-Bridge (as L3-37) and Jon Favreau (as Rio Durant)

Rated PG-13 for intense action and destruction

Before I go any further, I want to reassure my readers of two things:

1)      I will reveal only minor plot/character details below. In other words, you will find no spoilers here.  J

2)     My complaints with Solo are mostly with the writing and the plot of this particular film. I know a worry about this particular “Star Wars Story” has been that it could potentially damage the reputation of one of the most iconic and beloved movie characters of all time—the one played by Harrison Ford in the original Star Wars trilogy and the recent reboot/sequel The Force Awakens. I want to put those worries to bed. While 28-year-old California native Alden Ehrenreich (sounds like “All-din Aaron-rike”) is obviously not Harrison Ford, his performance is strong, and his portrayal of a younger version of the cocky, constantly-improvising rogue feels enjoyable and lived-in. I believe it is easy to buy into Ehrenreich’s performance in this movie without thinking much about Ford—and I mean that in the best way possible.

a.       In other words, I believe, even if you are a die-hard Harrison Ford/Han Solo fan, you can see this movie and walk away without feeling any worse about the original Star Wars and Ford’s iconic portrayal.

Solo: A Star Wars Story represents the tenth time (not counting the little-seen animated Clone Wars movie) viewers have beheld the blue letters “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away” on the big screen. Here, for the first time, those iconic words are followed by more words, these explaining that the story opens on the ship-building planet of Corrella (the first of many Easter eggs in the movie). It’s a grim, trashy, industrial planet, filled with coercion and slave labor. There we meet the apparently-orphaned Han, who is one of many street urchins who report to a creepy alien mistress and her goons. Soon enough, the crafty Han manages to escape and bribe his way onto a transport heading off-planet. In need of money and stability, he enlists in the Imperial Navy, creating the surname Solo as he goes. Quickly disillusioned after beholding the cold-blooded nature of the Empire’s incursions onto other planets, he falls in with a group of mercenaries in disguise, among them the smarmy Tobias Beckett (Woody Harrelson) and his lover Val (Thandie Newton). Han decides to join them and their alien pal Rio Durant (voice of Jon Favreau) on a big smuggling score that could make them all rich. Along the way, Han meets and becomes fast friends with the wookie Chewbacca (Joonas Suotamo, in his second stab at the role after taking over for Peter Mayhew in The Last Jedi), whose astounding physical strength is obviously a helpful asset in a life of crime. As part of the team, Han must soon show his skills at piloting, shooting, gambling (in a mano-a-mano with Donald Glover’s Lando Calrissian) and flirting, which he engages in the with the alluring lieutenant (Emilia Clarke) of a nasty crime lord (Paul Bettany) to whom Beckett is in debt.

That’s all the plot detail I will reveal, though the ensuing story does race around the galaxy a bit, featuring such important entities as the Millennium Falcon, the Kessel Run (“no ship has ever made it in less than 20 parcecs”, we’re told), and L3-37, Lando’s droid gal pal (voiced by Phoebe Wallter-Bridge). Along the way, we get countless more Easter Eggs, including a few famous costumes and trinkets, references to Tatooine, Kashyyk, Scarif, and the Hutts, the Falcon’s famous hologram chess game, and a late cameo by a popular character from the prequels (don’t worry, this is a character we actually liked). But there are lots of new details in this densely-plotted film as well, including a shipment of volatile explosives, a large-scale droid revolt, terrifying intergalactic monsters, the sinister-sounding crime group Crimson Dawn, double-crosses galore, and a few mentions of a “rebellion”.

As stated previously, I’m not going to compare Ehrenreich to Ford. What I will say is that Ehrenreich is instantly likable whether wisecracking, flirting, or scheming, and he’s convincing as this kind of character. He brings the same energy here that John Boyega has brought to the character of Finn, though it is here in service of a better-defined and developed character. No one will forget that Harrison Ford originally played this exact character in four films across 38 years, but, knowing getting Ford for this film was an impossibility, I went into it pretending it was a fan fiction (which it essentially is) and I have next to no complaints about Ehrenreich as Han Solo.

Apart from Han and the always-lovable Chewie, the other major returning character is Lando. In the performance that many were eagerly anticipating, Donald Glover has a ball, charming, cheating, grinning, and wise-cracking, but putting his foot down when the going gets tough.

But Glover’s performance—while a fun reminder of Billy Dee Williams’ work in the originals—is not one that holds the movie together. Apart from Ehrenreich, the majority of the heavy lifting here is done by Woody Harrelson and Emilia Clarke. Harrelson, with his world-weary features and sly, sometimes sinister quips, is perfect for this role as the slippery but determined Beckett—the exact kind of person you’d think a young Han Solo would have learned from. This character may seem par the course for Harrelson at this point (Woody Harrelson as Himself?), but the actor brings his usual charm and gets to have a little fun romancing Thandie Newton and blasting away during hair-raising action sequences. Meanwhile, Clarke, in a role that is not entirely unlike her rags-to-riches queen on Game of Thrones, shows endearing shades of charm, humor, vulnerability, and grit as Qi’ra, who’s basically an indentured servant to the crime lord Vos. Along with Ehrenreich, she’s part of an appealing pair with outstanding chemistry. Finally, memorable contributions are made by Bettany—who has fun with a hissworthy villain after a career mostly spent playing warm, best-friend types—and Wallter-Bridge, who’s off-screen work as the voice of L3-37 fits nicely with the series’ tradition of droids often being the most lively and spunky characters around (a la C-3PO, R2D2, and Rogue One’s K2SO).

There’s a lot to like in this movie, as I’ve stressed. The opening scenes are a terrific tone-setter, the cast is great, and there are some fun and intense action sequences. It’s fun to see how Han met Chewie (hard to think of a less-likely way for two to become best friends), and how Han met and one-upped Lando.  So why’d I only give it a 7?

Well, if the first “Star Wars Story” film, Rogue One, was one half iffy and meandering and one half outstanding, I’d say Solo is two-thirds “pretty good” and one third “um…what?” It sets up nicely, gets to the first action sequence(s) in short order, and engages us right away. But there’s so much going on that I felt like it started to lose me. Honestly, it really lost my full interest somewhere during the all-important Kessel Run sequence. I won’t reveal what happens in that sequence, but I can reveal that, if you asked me, now, to tell you what the Kessel Run is and how the Millennium Falcon made it, in supposedly record time, I would have no idea how (I’m still not even sure whether a “parcec” is a length of time or a unit of space, given its arguably contradictory use in other Star Wars films). I do feel like the movie misses out on showing us a few key moments earlier, such as Han’s first sit-down with Beckett, Val and the gang (they didn’t trust him minutes before, so I’m curious to see how their first real interaction went after they accepted him into their group) and the film shockingly does not show us the first time Han boards the Millennium Falcon (it does show us his first arrival in the cockpit, though, to the strains of the classic score, which is a pretty cool moment). And the third act, where the characters decide to suddenly rebel (a big buzzword in this series) against the crime lord Vos, really lost me. A random patchwork alliance and a couple of eyebrow-raising “big reveal” moments, and, suddenly, the main characters are fighting against the crime lord even though they can pay him off, get their money, and get away Scot-free? A few scenes are filled with twists that felt so manufactured it put me in “okay-just-get-this-over-with" territory as the viewer, never a good thing when you’re trying to bring your big action/spectacle movie to a moving climax.

There’s also a really clear plug for a potential sequel (series) at the end, which is a little wearying. So we’re still doing this, are we?

Where does Solo rank in the Star Wars saga so far? That, you’ll have to decide for yourself. I’d put it somewhere in the middle of pack. It’s better-made, -acted, and –written than the infamous prequels, and its characters resonate more than the short-lived protagonists of Rogue One, but the latter stages feel so fabricated and forced it took a lot of air out of the balloon. Still, it could’ve been worse.

Bottom Line

While Solo: A Star Wars Story is not the best Star Wars movie we’ve had, it’s also not the worst. Its winning cast, intense action and exciting plot make it a largely enjoyable experience. There are lots of Easter eggs for diehard fans, as well as plentiful strains from the beloved score. And Alden Ehrenreich is great stepping into the person of the iconic title character—I don’t think this film harms the reputation of the character Han Solo or the original Star Wars movies at all. But things do get a little complicated and a little forced late in the going, which keeps more from a more enthusiastic recommendation.

Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)

Directed by Ron Howard

Screenplay by Jonathan Kasdan and Lawrence Kasdan

Based on Characters Created by George Lucas

Rated PG-13

Length: 2 hours and 15 minutes

AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR

Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

Rating: 8.5/10

STARRING: Dave Bautista, Paul Bettany, Chadwick Boseman, Don Cheadle, Benedict Cumberbatch, Benicio Del Toro, Peter Dinklage, Robert Downey Jr., Winston Duke, Idris Elba, Chris Evans, Karen Gillan, Danai Gurira, Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Tom Holland, William Hurt, Scarlett Johansson, Pom Klementieff, Anthony Mackie, Elizabeth Olsen, Gwyneth Paltrow, Chris Pratt, Mark Ruffalo, Zoe Saldana, Sebastian Stan, Benedict Wong and Letita Wright

Featuring the Voices of Bradley Cooper as Rocket, Vin Diesel as Groot,

and Josh Brolin as Thanos

RATED PG-13 for intense action and violence, language, scenes of destruction, scenes of torture, and emotional content

**SPOILER FREE REVIEW**

If Avengers: Infinity War existed in a vacuum – one where the moviegoing public knew nothing about such things as actors’ contracts, extended universes, or planned sequels – it might go down as one of the most astonishing, audacious blockbuster films ever made. It’d be up there with The Dark Knight as one of the rare “mainstream entertainment” films in which actions had real, harrowing consequences, and no one onscreen was safe.

Well, we don’t live in a vacuum, so, as stunning as parts of Infinity War were, I’ll only truly be satisfied with the movie's quality after we’ve seen the next one (the still-untitled Avengers 4). While there are sequences in Infinity War that have the ability to draw gasps and tears from viewers, and leave whole theaters in silence, I have a feeling some, if not all, of those sequences will be undone, thereby relieving audiences of some of their shock, grief, and rage, and this movie of a great deal of its impact and profundity.

That being said, Infinity War is still a pretty audacious film. Or, rather, the effort and planning that went into its conception were pretty audacious.

I remember when I saw the original Iron Man, which was released in theaters on May 2, 2008. I was more or less dragged to it, thinking it would be some other over-the-top superhero hype piece (remember, this was less than a year after Sam Raimi’s Spiderman trilogy crashed and burned with an over-the-top third installment). I left Iron Man pleasantly surprised by the mix of action, wit, and spectacle, all of which was fronted by a terrific performance from recovering-addict actor Robert Downey Jr. Having never read comics, I knew little about the extended universe and the crossover stories that would bring together heroes and even side characters from two, three, four, five different stories. It was difficult to imagine then. All that to say, while it’s been a highly-publicized ride, it’s still pretty impressive to see Infinity War, the 19^th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), which features appearances by characters who all appeared in at least one of 18 other films. And it doesn’t even feel overstuffed. True, not every character gets a meaty dramatic arc, an epic monologue or a character-building flashback, but here’s a movie built off a literal decade of other films (since ‘08, only 2009 had no MCU films) that does some level of justice to each of those other movies, and yet also moves forward with an intriguing, engaging, powerful story of its own.

DISCLAIMER: I feel like I don’t need to say this, but I will: Infinity War includes characters/elements from Iron Man and every MCU film since, including February’s Black Panther. I don’t think you have to have seen all of them, but if you have not seen most of them – particularly recent ones like Panther and November’s Thor: Ragnarok – you will be lost. In fact, Infinity War opens immediately after the climax of Ragnarok, at least as shown in that film’s post-credit scene.

Early in Infinity War, we find the Guardians of the Galaxy traveling through space in response to an interstellar distress call, thinking they might save some people and make some money in the process. The Guardians, as you likely know, are comprised of half-human Peter Quill/Star Lord (Pratt), quasi-love interest/lethal assassin Gamora (Saldana), brooding humanoid Drax (Bautista), wide-eyed Mantis (Klementieff), scientifically enhanced Rocket Raccoon (Cooper) and tree creature Groot (Diesel). The Guardians soon stumble across Thor (Hemsworth), a survivor of the now-wrecked ship that was carrying the survivors of Asgard’s Ragnarok-wrought doom. A distressed Thor promptly tells the Guardians about Thanos (Brolin), a hulking purple Titan with monstrous minions, an intergalactic army, and supernatural strength. Gamora, who was raised and trained by him after being stolen away from her family, knows there’s more to the story. Thanos wears a high-tech gadget known as the Infinity Gauntlet, a metal device that was made to combine the powers of the six all-powerful Infinity Stones. The Stones (five of which have appeared in other MCU movies) are: the purple Power Stone, the green Time Stone, the blue Space Stone, the yellow Mind Stone, the red Reality Stone, and the only one that has yet to be unveiled, the orange Soul Stone. According to Gamora, if Thanos can get a hold of all six and plug them into the Gauntlet, he can destroy half of the existing universe with a literal snap of his fingers. As of the Guardians’ finding Thor, he has nabbed two of them. Worse, two others are on Earth.

One of the earthbound stones is the Time Stone, which is in the possession of the metaphysical wizard Doctor Strange (Cumberbatch). Because one of Strange’s order’s sanctums is in New York City, it’s there that some of Thanos’ minions first touch down, starting a fracas between them, Strange, Strange’s assistant Wong (Wong), and bystander Tony Stark/Iron Man (Downey Jr.). This destruction and fighting also catches the attention of Queens-born teenager Peter Parker (Holland), who is better known as Spiderman.

Another stone, the Mind Stone, was embedded into the head of Vision (Bettany), who is laying low in Europe with his sweetheart, Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch (Olsen). When Thanos’ minions come after them seeking the Mind Stone, this attracts the attention of Steve Rogers/Captain America (Evans), as well as Sam Wilson/Falcon (Mackie), Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier (Stan) and Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow (Johansson). These multiple instances of chaos soon capture the attention of other earthbound heroes like James Rhodes/War Machine (Cheadle) and Bruce Banner/Hulk (Ruffalo), and lead to all the heroes hiding out in the secretive African nation of Wakanda, which is led by T’Challa/Black Panther (Boseman), his younger sister/tech whiz Shuri (Wright), and his wise, skilled right-hand Gen. Okoye (Gurira).

All these heroes and their powers make for quite a sight and quite a team, but when Thanos shows up, he proves more than a match for them, even without his minions and his army. And the more Stones come into his possession, the more powerful he gets.

As you can see by the cast size and the sheer number of power-imbued heroes on the scene, Infinity War is a massive, sprawling film. And yet, despite its size, its length (149 minutes), and the amount of computer-generated effects onscreen, it holds the viewer’s attention effortlessly. This is partly because the film hits the ground running, opening with an epic mano-a-mano between the big green Hulk and the like-sized Thanos, and rarely slows down after that. But in reality, it’s due to the characters and, more than that, to the heads at Disney/Marvel who’ve been planning this massive crossover for years.

In recent years, audiences and critics have (rightfully) derided Marvel’s main competitor – DC – for rushing into crossover films like Batman v Superman, Suicide Squad, and Justice League in an attempt to catch the public’s interest (and dollars) in the same way the MCU. The failure, on one level or another, of each of those overwrought films feels all the more damning in the face of Infinity War, which is almost always interesting, and flat-out entertaining, through two-and-a-half jam-packed hours. Here, you can jump between one pack of heroes harnessing the power of an exploding star, another group in an epic tag-team fight against Thanos, and another in an apocalyptic showdown against Thanos’ minions and army, and be equally-entertained all the way around. As viewers, we’re invested in all of it, and it’s a treat to be pulled away from one engaging action to another and be reminded oh yeah, this is in the same movie! Marvel has put in the time and money, weathered some more modest hits, occasional middling critics’ reviews and some fan backlash to bring all these pieces together. Now, they can reap the fruits of that labor by putting together a film with a main cast of about 25 characters, and do it almost seamlessly. With a bare minimum of exposition and backstory, audiences are treated to largely-realized characters in a number of dream scenarios: serious-minded Thor joining forces with the quippy, irreverent Guardians; alpha dog Tony Stark having a battle of wits and egos with Doctor Strange; Stark exercising parental instincts in dissuading the ambition of adventure-hungry Peter Parker; star-crossed lovers Vision and Scarlet Witch fighting to keep hope alive; the Guardians battling Stark, Strange, and Parker in a confused, wild scuffle; and our most familiar heroes (Captain America, Thor, Black Widow, Hulk) coming face-to-face with Thanos, their most dangerous adversary yet. Along the way, we get touching flashbacks, alternate-reality shocks, and epic music cues. Infinity War is a massive entrée, and with all the seasoned ingredients present (finally!), it goes off like gangbusters.

In such a huge film, the focus isn’t on the actors so much as the characters, but most of the well-known thesps acquit themselves well. Downey Jr. is in his eighth go-round as the wisecracking, furiously entertaining Stark, and he continues to fit the role like a glove, though Stark is a much more haunted, guilt-ridden, contentious presence than he was when we first met him. Saldana gets a meaty role – what with Gamora reconnecting with her haunted past as an orphan of genocide, then an unwitting assassin trainee – and makes the most of it, up to a devastating moment when she underestimates the depth of Thanos’ cold-hearted ambition. Hemsworth has some nice moments playing off the Guardians and showing how Thor has grown from a pompous heir into a weary, humbled warrior more worthy of his tremendous displays of power. Olsen and Bettany have a sweet, sincere chemistry, though it comes with layers of fear and deep emotion as Vision more than once wonders whether he ought to simply destroy himself rather than allow Thanos to obtain the Mind Stone that gives him his life force.

Thanos himself is a treat, played by a near-perfect mix of CGI and gravel-voiced Josh Brolin. One of the main weaknesses of the various MCU films has been the fairly forgettable villains, but with Thanos being the biggest baddie of them all, the MCU clearly needed to step up their game. They do, and it works. Towering, muscle-bound and coldly decisive, Thanos lives up to his reputation as a monster who would order the massacre of a planet’s population as soon as set foot on its surface. He’s powerful—never out of a fight and equal to nearly all our heroes. But he’s also revealed to be a somewhat weary figure. Thanos acts with the resigned conviction of someone who has had an all-important destiny thrust upon him—one that feels at least partially unwanted (remember that old cliché about power and responsibility?). And yet he plows forward, killing people, approving genocide, and destroying worlds, all in the name of improving the quality of life for select individuals in an overcrowded universe (sound familiar at all? If not, take look at your history books.). And in a turn that may surprise many, he turns out to truly care for Gamora, who has always thought of Thanos as one who stole her away, corrupted her and exploited her.

As mentioned, many of the returning actors in this film give strong, memorable performances. But it’s Brolin/Thanos – in his first significant part after a few tease moments in other MCU films – who really stands out. He’s a worthy entrant in this packed cinematic universe, and one of the X-factors in this engaging monolith of a film.

Infinity War is not perfect. As much as this movie has to cram, not all of the characters get particularly juicy bits to play (the Wakandan entrants, in particular, are short-changed). There’s the aforementioned question of whether any of the drastic things that occur within the film’s runtime will end up being permanent, or whether this movie will end up something of a tease. I know that’s me being cynical, but it is a real question, one that prevents me (and perhaps others) from fully realizing the emotion of this story. How will this movie look in hindsight, after we’ve seen its conclusion? I have another nitpick I will not go into in depth for fear of spoilers—to put it simply: at one point, a character suffers a wound that probably should be fatal, but our attention is diverted and it is never mentioned again.

Plus, there’s my ever-present complaint with the MCU—that they insist on infusing humor into moments/scenes/settings where humor is not needed. It’s not that I’m against these movies being funny. Iron Man makes wisecracks—that, I get. And this movie reminds me what a ball it is to be around the Guardians when they are having a good time. But when Thor is fresh from seeing his friends/countrymen killed, and he’s making jokes? When entire scenes are undone just to do more Drax-is-clueless gags? This reliance on humor shows itself in more than one way—Chris Pratt, for example, has some of his most emotional moments yet as Star Lord, and his transitions from comedy to drama aren’t always convincing. Pratt’s a natural comedian, but a master of teary-eyed drama he is not.

Still, these are little complaints. I’ve sat through the movie twice, and would gladly do so again. Infinity War is immediately among the MCU’s best entries—worth all the time, hype, and money committed to it.

Bottom Line:

Avengers: Infinity War is the 19^th film in the MCU, and all 18 that came before have been building toward it (and its forthcoming sequel). I’ll say it’s one of the best (probably not the best, but in the conversation), though my overall opinion of its quality and relevance depends on what happens in the next movie. The writing is strong, pulling together more than 20 established characters without any real stretches in credulity, and it gives them a more than worthy foil in the hulking, conflicted Thanos. The effects are excellent, as usual. This is a hugely impressive achievement, and I’m very interested to see what history will ultimately say about this movie—part one of a pet project Marvel/Disney have been working on for 10 years.

Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

Directed by Anthony and Joe Russo

Screenplay by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely

Based on the comics by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby

Rated PG-13

Length: 149 minutes

THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)

Rating: 8/10

STARRING: Frances McDormand, Woody Harrelson, Sam Rockwell, Caleb Landry Jones, Lucas Hedges, John Hawkes, Abbie Cornish, Zeljko Ivanek, Clarke Peters, and Peter Dinklage

RATED R for language (including racial slurs and some sexual references), bloody images, some violence, and emotional content

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri starts out almost flawlessly but can’t quite stick the landing.

A darkly-comic film that’s said to be a major contender for year-end awards, Three Billboards is about as good as can be for probably the first hour—the cast is perfect, the writing is superb, the cinematography is excellent, there are laughs as well as moments of genuine, tear-jerking pathos to be had—but it doesn’t quite deliver. Where fellow awards contender The Shape of Water had a strong finish after a somewhat rushed and cluttered first act, Three Billboards has a magnificent first hour and then can’t quite figure out where to go. It’s a shame, but it can’t fully mar my impression of a movie that was near-perfect early on.

Raped While Dying.

Still No Arrests?

How come, Chief Willoughby?

Those are the phrases the quietly-furious Mildred Hayes (Frances McDormand) pays to have posted on three large advertising billboards on a back road of her rural podunk Missouri town, Ebbing, nearly a year after the violent death of her teenage daughter Angela. While the road is no longer the major thoroughfare it once was, when the words are obligingly posted by advertiser Red Welby (Caleb Landry Jones), within hours, the entire town of Ebbing is in an uproar. Mildred’s quietly suffering son Robbie (Lucas Hedges) is picked on at school. Her hard-drinking ex, Charlie (John Hawkes) comes by to tell her how enraged and ashamed he is. People on the street start talking and pointing. Local news crews come asking for interviews. And Red, the advertiser, faces boycotts and anger for helping Mildred. After all, everyone knows about Angela’s tragic passing, but they also know Bill Willoughby (Woody Harrelson), the police chief, a decent man who has recently been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. One particularly ticked person is police deputy Dixon (Sam Rockwell), a hick-dumb good ol’ boy who still lives with his momma and worships Chief Willoughby. As Mildred, Red and Chief Willoughby feel the heat, all these inter-connected characters are forced to do some soul-searching even while the prospect of solving the mystery of Angela’s killer seems as distant as ever.

Let’s get this out of the way real quick: despite the murder-mystery that is the first domino in this series of events to fall, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, is not a whodunit. Whoever so horribly violated Angela and then killed her – and thus scarred Mildred and her family in an irrevocably way – is a dark mystery that gnaws at all the major characters, but it doesn’t define the movie. Mildred’s angry, desperate, last-gasp act to have the billboards updated with her furious messages and the havoc it creates in a small circle of characters is what writer/director Martin McDonagh is really going for. And it’s tremendous in conveying that.

But, again, that is all there is to Three Billboards. In hindsight, it seems almost obvious that the movie doesn’t go anywhere besides small-town-in-an-uproar, because that’s really the only direction it can go if it’s not going to go the whodunit route, become an investigation movie, an action movie, or (least likely, but still not out of the realm of possibility) a romance that springs up to help Mildred cope with this tough stage of her life. It does offer some characters the chances to turn some personal emotional and psychological corners, but it does so in a quieter way than one might expect or want. Shoot, Three Billboards does stray toward convention with a late minor revelation that could have proven a more black-and-white ending, but also would have made this strongly acted and well-made film suddenly feel more like a far-fetched episode of Law & Order: SVU.

Still, if you’re here for small-town kerfuffle, you’ll get it here (Mildred gets a reprimanding visit from her former parish priest, and has a wild run-in with her dentist, about her peace-disturbing billboards). If you’re looking for some tense drama, you’ll get that, too, most notably in a devastating one-take scene where Deputy Dixon has a fit of grief-driven rage in the middle of the town. If you want emotional drama, the Hayes family has a scary domestic confrontation, and Chief Willoughby’s progressing cancer tugs the heartstrings (Abbie Cornish, as his long-suffering wife, has a heart-shattering soundless reaction when she gets some bad news). And if you are here for various in vogue socio-political commentaries about police, color, class, gender, small-town Southern traditionalism, or even the stigma of having some you love be the victim of a high-profile crime, you’ll get that, too.

Does it get a little preachy? Yes. Would that take any more away from the film if it had somehow had a more satisfactory ending? No.

Overall, writer/director McDonagh is to be praised, as are his actors. Frances McDormand fits the role of the brittle, quietly seething Mildred like a glove, the natural steel in her eyes making us believe every bit of her small-town stubbornness, snark, and fury. Woody Harrelson, too, is perfectly cast, delivering one of the performances of his career as the witty but haunted man who’s staring his own mortality in the face. The actor, who has a tendency to seem like every role he gets was made for him, has been getting some Best Supporting Actor buzz, and I’d love to see him get an Oscar nomination for this fine, scene-stealing role. Fellow Best Supporting Actor contender Sam Rockwell is surprisingly affecting in a memorable turn as the maladroit Dixon, the dumb-hick-cop-caricature turned on its head. Younger actors Caleb Landry Jones, Lucas Hedges, and Samara Weaving all make memorable impressions, and former Oscar nominee John Hawkes makes the most of a few pivotal scenes. The movie’s failings are the fault of the writer, not the actors, who make up one of the year’s finest ensembles. Only the great Peter Dinklage doesn’t have the effect desired, if only because he is sadly under-served by the script, which gives him a relative cameo in a role that goes nowhere.

In Summary

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, is a mouthful of a title, and it’s an intriguing, deeply-felt, and at-times hilarious look at how one woman’s stubborn, angry, outside-the-box act turns a small town on its head, and affects a wide range of people. The movie begins with a first hour that feels pretty much perfect, and, while it doesn’t quite follow through in delivering the most satisfactory ending, I still see why the movie’s a major Oscar contender. The cast, which includes a gimmie Best Actress nominee (Fargo’s Frances McDormand) and dueling worthy Supporting Actor contenders (Woody Harrelson and Sam Rockwell), is phenomenal in a series of multi-dimensional, well-written roles. The cinematography and score are solid. The socio-political commentary is there without smacking you in the face. Best of all, this is an ORIGINAL work—not based on anything. Seriously. I went out of my way to see this affecting dramedy, and I’m glad I did.

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)

Directed and Written for the Screen by Martin McDonagh

Rated R

Length: 1 hour, 55 minutes

THE SHAPE OF WATER

The Shape of Water (2017)

Rating: 8/10

STARRING: Sally Hawkins, Michael Shannon, Richard Jenkins, Doug Jones, Octavia Spencer, and Michael Stuhlbarg

RATED R for language, nudity and sexual content, and violent material including bloody images and scenes of torture

The Shape of Water sniffs greatness, but it doesn’t quite reach it.

From the weird and often wonderful mind of Mexican auteur Guillermo del Toro (Hellboy, Pan’s Labyrinth, Pacific Rim, Crimson Peak), The Shape of Water wants to be a lot of things. First and foremost, it is a tale of forbidden love, a deep connection that springs up between two beings of different species. The second most prominent and familiar aspect is that of a thriller, with themes of government secrets, paranoia, espionage, and military-sanctioned torture. It is also a study in loneliness, about individuals who feel different and disconnected from those around them for one reason or another. In addition, because the main characters live in an apartment above a movie theater and often watch or reference classic movies on TV, it’s clear there is a love letter to cinema packed in here, signed affectionately by Mr. del Toro. All these elements are interesting, and make for a full movie-going experience, but, for this reviewer, it was a little too much. The many plot strands allow for a number of effective characterizations (and the actors are terrific), but arguably the most important plot strand (and the movie’s main selling point), the cross-species romance, doesn’t get the time to truly develop against all this other material. Perhaps it would have been different in a longer movie, or in a film where the main romantic couple could, you know, talk to each other.

After all, the protagonist, Elisa Esposito (Sally Hawkins), is mute, the apparent victim of a childhood attack that left her with prominent scars on both sides of her throat. The object of her affection is a startling aquatic humanoid creature (Doug Jones, Mr. del Toro’s usual muse, under tons of makeup) who is the object of study in the secretive government lab in which Elisa works as a cleaning lady. When we first meet Elisa, she has a routine down pat. She sleeps through the day, wakes in the early evening to boil eggs, has some “adult quiet time” in the bath, picks out a favorite pair of shoes, and visits her neighbor Giles (a warm, wonderful Richard Jenkins), a gay artist who shares Elisa’s love of old cinema (the movie takes place in the 1960s). Elisa then takes a bus into work, where she meets up with the feisty Zelda (Octavia Spencer, supplying most of the film’s humor), who chatters away as the two scrub floors, toilets, and even, on occasion, the top-secret lab rooms. Elisa and Zelda are supervised by the smart, quiet Dr. Hoffstetler (Michael Stuhlbarg), who himself is overseen by the stone-faced, moody government spook Strickland (a reliably scary Michael Shannon). After an accident in which Strickland loses a few fingers, Elisa and Zelda are rushed in to clean up the mess. It is there that Elisa discovers the creature, whom Strickland claims to have discovered and captured in South America. The creature cannot speak, but it picks up some of Elisa’s sign language easily enough, and Elisa learns that they share a mutual love of eggs and music. But when Strickland gets orders to have the creature killed so it can be taken apart and studied, Elisa panics, and, with her friends, she begins devising a plan to have the creature freed in the ocean.

That might sound straightforward. That is a basic synopsis—it’s also the movie I thought I was going to get. But The Shape of Water is not just focused on Eliza, but breaks off to follow Giles, Strickland, and even Dr. Hoffstetler into their personal lives. Sometimes this is effective (such as in Giles’ repeated failed attempts at getting a painting published for an ad company, or Dr. Hoffstetler’s growing suspicion Russians are spying on him) and sometimes it is not (scenes of Strickland’s home life – including a cold and manufactured sex scene between him and his wife (Lauren Lee Smith) – add nothing to the film).  But it does detract from the romance at its center. Again, Elisa can’t speak, and neither can the creature. And (thankfully) Twilight this isn’t. We don’t get long scenes of characters staring into each other’s eyes or attempting to define their feelings. But we also get little build for Elisa is going out of her way to sneak into the high-tech lab safe-room to visit the creature, laying out eggs for its enjoyment, and even bringing her record player in to serenade it in its water tank. One wonders if the movie would have been more successful overall (given its many plot strands) if the connection between the two was not intended to be romantic but more of a kinship, simply a good-hearted desire to save it from government experimentation and exploitation. This would still have captured the audience’s interest and had us rooting for her to sneak the creature to safety before Strickland can kill it, but might not have raised expectations for us to feel something more. Similarly, the “love of cinema” aspect feels tacked on. Except for one luminous fantasy/dream sequence, the idea that Elisa lives above a movie theater adds nothing to the movie.

Still, the movie may only be missing a small handful of Elisa- and- creature-based scenes from being great. The creature is a gorgeous sight to behold (kudos to Jones for sitting through what must have been a marathon makeup job every day), and there are a couple other brilliant visuals.

The government/lab thriller works, Elisa’s relationship with Zelda works, and our peeks into the lives of Giles and Dr. Hoffstetler are effective. The movie is clearly not only a commentary on cross-species/forbidden lovers but also on different types of loneliness. Those who cannot speak are lonely. Those with an unrequited crush or a misunderstood sexual orientation are lonely. The wives of brooding, deadbeat husbands are lonely. It can even be hard being the one near the top of the food chain, when your life, reputation and even freedom are based on the whims of those above you. Again, kudos to all the actors for their heartfelt, lived-in work.

In Summary

The Shape of Water ranks near the top of Mexican writer/director Guillermo del Toro’s filmography, a film that juggles elements of a romance, a thriller, a multi-pronged character study and a love letter to film all in one. It feels like a bit too much – the romance, though admittedly hamstrung by the fact that neither partner can speak, didn’t quite inspire in me the feelings intended – but the movie still falls just short of being great. There are some stunning visuals, palpable tension, and terrific performances from half a dozen actors, a couple of whom will likely end up contenders for Academy Awards. This surrealist, borderline-fantasy is a hard R (unnecessary nudity and scenes of a nasty government agent taking a cattle-prod to a sensitive aquatic humanoid will do that), but it’s an intriguing film not just about a fantastical cross-species romance or height-of-the-Cold-War paranoia, but also a study in what means to be lonely, and be different, in a world where everybody else either fits in or pretends to. Mr. del Toro has made some interesting, genre-splicing films before (Hellboy, Pacific Rim, Pan’s Labyrinth), and this is one of his best.

The Shape of Water (2017)

Directed by Guillermo del Toro

Screenplay by Guillermo del Toro and Vanessa Taylor

Rated R

Length: 2 hours and 3 minutes

THE GREATEST SHOWMAN

The Greatest Showman (2017)

Rating: 6.5/10

STARRING: Hugh Jackman, Michelle Williams, Zac Efron, Rebecca Ferguson, Zendaya and Keala Settle; with Austyn Johnson and Cameron Seely as P.T. Barnum’s Daughters

RATED PG

If you like movie musicals, you’ll love The Greatest Showman.

While there’s no question that Showman is corny in that musicals way – the lip-synching is at-times painfully obvious, and the narrative is nothing to write home about – the soundtrack created by the Oscar-winning songwriters of last year’s La La Land (Benji Pasek and Justin Paul) and the hit Broadway musical Dear Evan Hansen is absolutely phenomenal. Add a typically uplifting rags-to-riches tale, a 100% committed cast, and some spectacular choreography, and it makes for a sweet, uplifting, toe-tapping package.

The musical is loosely based on the life of P.T. Barnum (Hugh Jackman, played as a preteen by Ellis Rubin), who grew up the poor son of a tailor. Smitten early on with the richer Charity (Michelle Williams, played as a preteen by Skylar Dunn), Barnum joins the railroad to make something of himself. But even once he’s married, he’s barely making ends meet, and he decides to make a better, more fulfilling life for himself, his wife, and their two girls (Austyn Johnson and Cameron Seely). While his first attempt at a major attraction – a macabre wax museum – doesn’t catch on, he soon has the idea to build a live performing show based around people with unusual or bizarre appearances or abilities. Partly financed by a rich young showbiz heir (Zac Efron), Barnum’s circus is soon a highly lucrative spectacle, with a whole troupe of performers included a bearded woman (Keala Settle), a dwarf (Sam Humphrey) and a dazzling trapeze artist (Zendaya). In time, Barnum’s circus is big enough to gain the attention and talents of a famous European opera singer (Rebecca Ferguson). The money and attention pour in, but the ambitious Barnum soon begins to lose sight of what gave him the motivation to try in the first place.

Like I said, the narrative is nothing amazing. It’s standard stuff – the rise and fall of celebrity life – and it’s oft-interrupted by songs. In fact, there are moments when you wish the actors would not sing and would actually speak their lines, as it would add weight and seriousness to a few key emotional encounters. But then again, who's here for "weight" and "seriousness"? And also...what songs! If you haven’t checked out the soundtrack to The Greatest Showman, you need to. Pasek and Paul, who won their Oscar back in February for the very mellow number “City of Stars”, have penned two instant classics (“The Greatest Show” and “This is Me”), and a handful of additional showstoppers (“The Other Side”, “Rewrite the Stars”, “Never Enough”, “From Now On”). If you can’t tell, I’m passionate about this soundtrack. Really, all eleven tracks are worth listening to on Spotify or wherever you want to check it out. And if the music is what you come to The Greatest Showman for, you’ll be the better for it, because the songs leap off the screen, complemented by bright colors and dazzling choreography.

The songs supersede even the actors—unsurprising for a musical—but the cast members acquit themselves well. Jackman seems much more comfortable here than he did singing live in a tough part in 2012’s Les Miserables, and he sounds great on the soundtrack. Efron, who burst into the spotlight with High School Musical and Hairspray, hasn’t lost a step and sounds great as well. Williams and Zendaya perform admirably in supportive spouse-type roles, Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation standout Rebecca Ferguson does not sing but does perhaps the movie’s best and most convincing lip-synching during a key power ballad, and Broadway star Keala Settle absolutely slays, her mind-boggling soprano the driving force behind all the group numbers, particularly the Golden Globe-nominated “This Is Me”.

In Summary

If you like movie musicals, you’ll love The Greatest Showman. I’d say it’s better than this year’s other live-action musical, The Beauty and the Beast, though it’s stylistically closer to Moulin Rouge or Hairspray. Hugh Jackman, Zac Efron, Zendaya, and the rest of the cast are great in front of the camera, but it’s the work they’ve done in the studio with La La Land Oscar-winning songwriters Benji Pasek and Justin Paul that’s worth writing home about. The soundtrack is phenomenal. If you like show-tunes, look it up. There are eleven songs, and more than half of them are incredible, get-stuck-in-your-head-type numbers. The music is the main (only) reason to see the movie, as the narrative plot is pretty cliché stuff. Still, this was overall a fun, feel-good time with some strong performers and incredible music.

The Greatest Showman (2017)

Directed by Michael Gracey

Screenplay by Jenny Bicks and Bill Condon

Story by Jenny Bicks

Rated PG

Length: 1 hour, 45 minutes

THE DISASTER ARTIST

The Disaster Artist (2017)

Rating: 7.5/10

STARRING: Dave Franco, James Franco, Seth Rogen, Ari Graynor, Paul Scheer and Alison Brie, with Josh Hutcherson as “Denny”, Zac Efron as “Chris-R”, Jacki Weaver as “Claudette”, and Nathan Fielder as “Peter”

RATED R for constant strong language, sexual references, and brief nudity

Oh, hiii readers…

First off, if you have not heard of The Room, the famously-bad 2003 drama directed by, written by, produced by, and starring one Tommy Wiseau, go look it up. It was recently the subject of a 6-minute long Honest Trailer by Youtube’s ScreenJunkies channel. Personally, I first came to know of it via The Nostalgia Critic, Doug Walker, a Youtube personality who reviews and criticizes bad movies. The contemporary answer to all-time-bad-film Plan Nine from Outer Space, The Room is a clumsily written, directed, and acted film about Johnny (the pale, vaguely-Eastern-European-accented Wiseau), who has his heart broken when his girlfriend Lisa decides she’s not in love with him anymore and seduces his best friend Mark. This begins a dramatic spiral that ends with Johnny’s suicide. The film – a cult hit that still sells out special screenings of fans dying to laugh at it – is horrendous, packed to the brim with awkward dialogue, oddly positioned sex scenes, obvious grown men playing “fresh-faced” teenagers, random inconsequential admissions of breast cancer diagnosis, and games of football toss in alleyways in which the participants wear tuxedos for no particular reason.

Mark was played in the film by actor Greg Sestero, who later paired with Tom Bissell to write a memoir—“The Disaster Artist: My Life Inside The Room, the Greatest Bad Movie Ever Made”. The book has now been adapted into this movie, a Golden Globe-nominated comedy starring the Franco brothers, James and Dave. The Disaster Artist chronicles how Sestero (Dave) met the aforementioned Wiseau (James) in an acting class, and thus began an unlikely friendship/partnership that led to Sestero getting second billing in Wiseau’s brainchild The Room. Having seen and laughed at the aforementioned ScreenJunkies and Nostalgia Critic parodies of The Room, and having heard of the mad genius of the film, I was excited to see this movie.

Oh my gooooodness….

The Disaster Artist is a stunning, hilarious, awkward, outrageous, and nerve-shreddingly-uncomfortable – yet also legitimately touching – film about misguided ambition. Really, it’s about following one’s dreams. Just because we don’t all look, sound, and act like people aspiring to be great artists doesn’t mean we aren’t.

As seen early on, Greg Sestero has looks but little talent. He yearns to be a star, but can’t pull any excitement or charisma out of himself. So when he sees fellow acting classmate Tommy Wiseau do a remarkably un-self-conscious rendition of the “Stella” scene fromTennessee Williams’ “A Streetcar Named Desire”, he’s intrigued. And Tommy turns out to be a nice guy. Nice, but weird. He claims only to be from New Orleans, and he claims to be the same age as Greg, who is in his early 20s. But his lank black hair, drooping blue eyes, and lazy, mumbling deadpan speech suggest those are far from the truth. Nonetheless, he’s polite, and immediately hooks Greg with his self-assured, devil-may-care approach to life. He’s impulsive and adventurous, a dreamer, his unique way of doing things backed by a large and mysterious personal fortune. While it’s clear to almost everyone that Tommy does not have the look, personality, or diction for screen acting, the desperate Greg sees someone who shares his dreams of making it, and who is relentlessly optimistic. The two men become roommates at Tommy’s apartment in Los Angeles, and begin auditioning for roles. But when Tommy attempts to impress a Hollywood producer and causes a public scene, he’s angrily told he has no talent and will never make it. His sunshine-y disposition sours, but Greg cheers him up by suggesting he make his own movie. Nearly three years later, Tommy drops the script for The Room in front of Greg, saying he wants him to be the co-lead. If Greg thought knowing and living with the social-nightmare Tommy could be tricky before, he hasn’t seen anything yet. Tommy has money but nothing else, the script is a disaster, production falls into chaos and The Room turns out to be, well, The Room.

Assuming Sestero and Bissell are not lying or exaggerating in the book for which the film is named, The Disaster Artist has to be viewed with incredulity. It’s hard to believe this fish-out-of-water tale is real. I was practically watching through my fingers in mortification as Tommy has Greg loudly improv lines in public to overcome his stage fright, bellows Shakespeare in nice restaurants to get the attention of studio execs, and “oversees” the miserable production of his terrible movie.

Uncomfortable as it is, The Disaster Artist had to be a hoot to make. There is clearly a deep, cult-ish love for The Room. How else would name actors like Seth Rogen, Josh Hutcherson and Zac Efron be dying to come aboard to play hapless participants in the production of the classic? How else would actors like Bryan Cranston, Jackie Weaver, Adam Scott and Kristen Bell volunteer their time? The Room is a bizzaro, from-another-universe type of work, but I’m guessing each actor in Hollywood sees something of themselves in the ambition, the passion, the awkwardness, the sheer unforgettable madness of Wiseau’s film. Seriously, The Disaster Artist is a gem just for the passion with which it was clearly made—the movie ends with almost five full minutes of The Room clips juxtaposed opposite The Disaster Artist cast’s shot-for-shot, movement-for-movement renditions of all the most (in)famous scenes. If you know The Room, you know which ones:

“You’re tearing me apart, Lisa!”

“Johnny’s my best friend.”

“I did not hit her. It’s not true. It’s bulls***. I did not hit her. I did not. Oh hi Mark.”

“I got the results of the test back. I definitely have breast cancer.”

“Anything for my princesssss.”

Like I said, watching The Disaster Artist made me physically uncomfortable at times. Tommy Wiseau would make Michael Scott or Leslie Knope uncomfortable with his unfiltered antics. Honestly, I was so tense and unnerved I wanted to leave the theater at certain points. But the crazy thing is, just as the movie turns out to be a look at not the quality of the finished product of The Room, but about the passion and the measure of the dream, I’m catching myself now asking why I had that reaction, and whether I should have. It’s just a movie, but—how do I treat people in my life who may be a little different from me? People with different voices, or different looks, or different personal thresholds for enthusiasm and embarrassment in social situations? Do I judge books by their covers? If I met Tommy Wiseau, or someone like him, would I immediately reject him because he doesn’t look or act like I think a “normal” person should?

This doesn’t have to even be about celebrities, or people who make bad movies when they think they’re making good ones? How do I react to people with physical handicaps, with speech impediments, with other defects? Do I shy away and treat them differently, or do I still appreciate what they have to offer, treat them with respect, kindness, and dignity? At least according to the movie, Greg Sestero learned to appreciate the experience of making The Room even when an audience full of people was howling with laughter on the night of the premiere. Greg, an untalented actor, was seeing himself on a massive silver screen, in a real theater populated by actors and other industry folks, who were enjoying themselves, laughing and cheering. He wasn’t about to win any Oscars or hit it big, but he had accomplished his dream of being a star in a real movie—just in an unconventional way.  

Obviously, The Disaster Artist would be nothing without the 110% commitment of the Franco brothers, James and Dave. Dave, 32, who rose to fame with his hilarious performances in screwball comedies like 21 Jump Street and Neighbors, is terrific as the audience’s catalyst, a voice of reason in the circus that surrounds Tommy Wiseau. But all the buzz around Disaster Artist is around big brother James, 39, who also directed, and there’s no question why. The elder Franco came up in serious roles, as Harry Osborne in the Sam Raimi Spiderman trilogy and the former titular character in the would-be epic medieval romance Tristan & Isolde. He’s even been nominated for a Best Actor Oscar, for playing real life wilderness survivor Aron Ralston in the 2010 Best Picture nominee 127 Hours. But James has found his greatest success is wacky comedies (The Pineapple Express, This is the End, The Interview) and wackier roles (Spring Breakers, Why Him?). To put it bluntly, the plays-by-his-own-rules artiste has tended to rub me the wrong way…which makes him a perfect candidate to play the so-strange-he’s-got-to-be-from-another-planet Wiseau. And, in a manner that would surely make the infamous auteur proud, James inhabits Wiseau, not just with the eyes and the hair, but his odd diction, his body language, and his complete unabashed approach to the role. It really is gold—he disappears into the role, and would deserve an Oscar nomination if he got it.

In Summary

The Disaster Artist may have made me physically uncomfortable at times -- enough that I can’t say I would sit through the whole thing again -- but man is it a special little treasure of a movie. A recreation of the making of the famously-bad 2003 drama The Room, it invites you to laugh out loud at its absurdity. James Franco goes all-in as the mysterious, mumbling, socially-awkward Tommy Wiseau – the writer/director/star of The Room – in a performance that has already gotten a Golden Globe Best Actor nomination and deserves Oscar consideration. His brother Dave is just as good, as the hapless dreamer/co-star who befriends this oddity of a man and ends up the better for it. And that's the point. This story of the now cult-classic – which still sells out special screenings of people dying to have a good time watching it with their friends – isn’t just a snarky Hollywood take on a bad movie. It’s a parable about following your dreams, about believing in yourself and your friends, about aiming high against all reason, and driving toward your goals with passion. Like the old Les Brown quote says: “Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you will land among the stars.”

The Disaster Artist (2017)

Rating: 8/10

Directed by James Franco

Screenplay by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber

Based on the book “The Disaster Artist: My Life Inside The Room, the Greatest Bad Movie Ever Made”, by Greg Sestero and Tom Bissell

Rated R

Length: 1 hour, 44 minutes

STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI

Star Wars: The Last Jedi (Episode VIII) (2017)

Rating: 8.5/10

STARRING: Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Oscar Isaac, John Boyega, Kelly Marie Tran, Domhnall Gleeson, Laura Dern, Benicio del Toro, Gwendoline Christie, and Andy Serkis as the voice of Supreme Leader Snoke

RATED PG-13 for intense action violence and some emotional content

Once upon a time, a filmmaker named Rian Johnson was called upon to direct a crucial installment of the hit television series Breaking Bad. Though it was technically only the third-to-last episode of the acclaimed series, “Ozymandias” was in many ways the show’s dramatic and emotional climax, opening with a shootout and the gut-wrenching death of a major character, seguing into an explosive domestic confrontation, and ending with the show’s main character on the run, a fugitive wanted for kidnapping and murder. Lauded far and wide, “Ozymandias” was a magnificent hour of television, one that still ranks as Breaking Bad’s highest-rated episode ever, with an online user/critic rating of 9.9/10.

Rian Johnson stepping in to direct a pivotal installment of a beloved, popular series and delivering an unforgettable spectacle—a tremendous and stunning mix of action, drama, exhilaration, terror and heartbreak…

Sound familiar?

While you can see that I did not rate Star Wars: The Last Jedi as highly as the people have rated “Ozymandias”, the nature of the achievement resonates. Johnson both wrote and directed The Last Jedi, and it proves not only the longest-ever episode of the series, but almost certainly one of the best. A scene-setting first act may leave viewers a bit restless (in a Rogue One kind of way), but it gives way to a real whopper of a second act, a huge final hour that just keeps building on itself, featuring a dazzling and powerful parade of spectacular action sequences, heart-stopping shifts in momentum, climactic confrontations, and fake-out endings that just beg to be described with the term epic.

The Last Jedi begins within minutes on the timeline of the conclusion of 2015’s The Force Awakens, its immediate predecessor. After the famous opening title crawl, we find the stubborn, brave Resistance, led by General Leia Organa (the late Carrie Fisher), seeking to send a message to the high-powered, heavily-armed First Order with a surprise attack. A bombing run led by pilot Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) inflicts massive damage on the First Order’s superior fleet of space cruisers. But when the mission takes a turn, and the Resistance sustain heavy losses, they are forced to turn and flee. Pursued relentlessly by the First Order fleet, led by the sneering General Hux (Domhnall Gleeson), the Resistance soon find themselves with dwindling fuel reserves and limited options. Things don’t improve when Leia promotes Vice Admiral Holdo (Laura Dern) to command, and the Vice Admiral’s tactical plan turns out to be little more than to run and evade for as long as possible. Sensing their commanders’ increasing desperation, Resistance fighters Poe, Finn (John Boyega) and Rose (Kelly Marie Tran) hatch a daring plan to sneak onto a First Order cruiser and confuse their tracking signals in order to allow the good guys' fleet to beam into hyperspace and escape. Meanwhile, their ally Rey (Daisy Ridley), who has long felt the growing power of the Force within her, seeks tutelage at the hands of Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), the legendary Jedi hero who has been hidden in exile for years. Luke is reluctant to tutor Rey because his last notable pupil was Kylo Ren (Adam Driver), his nephew and a once-promising student who is now the brooding apprentice of the malevolent First Order head honcho, Supreme Leader Snoke (voice of Andy Serkis). Soon it’s a race against time as Poe, Finn and Rose try to throw off the First Order’s tracking signals before they’re caught, before the fleet’s fuel runs out, and before the conflicted Kylo Ren once and for all puts his past behind him and embraces the Dark Side, and all the power that comes with it. All the while, Rey battles frustration and despair as she tries to persuade Luke to help unlock her own Force abilities, so that she can not only become a true Jedi but also step up to help the Resistance escape annihilation.

Needless to say, if you are not familiar with The Force Awakens, you need to watch it, or re-watch it, whatever the case may be. There are a handful of new characters in this cast, but, as stated, Last Jedi picks up within minutes of where the previous installment left off, and features all the returning major characters in their own stories that pick up almost from the get-go. In the interest of not spoiling any of the movie’s half-dozen major twists or revelations, I will say no more of the plot here.

While The Last Jedi does not rival The Empire Strikes Back as my personal Star Wars favorite, it is everything you want in a Star Wars film. The opening Lucasfilm and Star Wars logos are as stirring as ever. The visuals are absolutely incredible, from Resistance bombers deploying their payloads during the opening attack, a gorgeously-shot and choreographed two-on-eight skirmish that might go down as the series’ best action scene ever, and the final battle on a planet made up of stark white salt and blood-red crystals. Visits to multiple different planets provide some interstellar intrigue, most notably a planet boasting a luxurious casino that puts one in mind of a James Bond film. Long-time supporting characters like R2D2, Chewbacca, and C-3PO (still voiced by Anthony Daniels) elicit chuckles with quirky appearances – keeping things grounded while we focus mostly on the exploits of our dashing new heroes – and an old favorite makes a surprise cameo fans of all ages will love. It all adds up to a more-than-memorable entry, one that keeps things entertaining throughout its considerable running time (at just over two-and-a-half-hours, it’s the longest Star Wars by almost 20 minutes).

So, with all these colorful descriptors and high accolades, why do I not have it rated higher? Well, this was surely inevitable, but despite enough major twists and turns that I started to feel like this Star Wars shared some DNA with Game of Thrones, the movie does reek of fan service. One character who was surprisingly underused in The Force Awakens returns to be almost immediately discarded again (why have the character around anyway? Because she looks cool?). There’s a none-too-subtle vein of slapstick humor, particularly in the first hour, that might prompt unhappy comparisons to The Prequels. And, in keeping with the epic concept, The Last Jedi leaves no dramatic stone unturned. A few favorite characters have Near-Death-Experiences that feel like deliberate fakeouts, strains of the series’ beloved musical score provide obvious cues for impending Big Moments or Important Lines of Dialogue, and a number of important confrontations are subjected to unnecessarily lengthy closeups clearly meant to milk the tension. I also just can’t help feeling that The Last Jedi may have fired too many narrative bullets. For all the intriguing surprises and major developments here, one wonders what, exactly, is left for 2019’s Episode IX to do. Last Jedi is tremendous, but more of a cliffhanger ending, while frustrating for fans now, could have built even greater excitement for the last episode of this trilogy.

Unsurprisingly, the cast is terrific. How great it is to meet back up with familiar characters after Rogue One’s one-and-done heroes?! Daisy Ridley navigates a topsy-turvy, dramatic go-round for Rey with aplomb, John Boyega brings the same conviction and pluck to Finn he brought last time, and Oscar Isaac capably provides the required charisma and swagger as our Han Solo stand-in. Another returnee, Domhnall Gleeson, cranks the sneer up to smack-it-off-his-face levels as the nefarious, if somewhat doofish, Hux. The always-reliable Laura Dern is rock-solid as a different breed of rebel leader, and newcomer Kelly Marie Tran makes an endearing sidekick. Old favorites Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher (whose passing last December at age 60 broke hearts the world over) give soulful performances in roles worthy of their screen prestige. And whatever you may think of Kylo Ren the character – whether you think him a mesmerizingly-conflicted villain or a whiny punk kid – you have to admit Adam Driver is killing it in the role; Ren is easily the most dynamic and memorable presence in this trilogy so far, and his ultimate allegiance and fate is probably the biggest question left to be answered.

Oh, and can we please get Andy Serkis an Oscar? Or a statue? Or something? His work as Supreme Leader Snoke (on par with his instant-classic motion-capture portrayals of Gollum, King Kong, and Caesar the ape) is masterful.

In Summary

Okay, to wrap up. While I do not consider Star Wars: The Last Jedi to be the beloved series’ best, for me, it easily surpasses its predecessor, 2015’s The Force Awakens. And as a two-and-a-half-hour epic with a you-have-to-see-it-to-believe-it second half, I almost feel like it breaks new ground for the series. It’s not perfect, but I’m pretty sure writer/director Rian Johnson will never have to buy another drink, and Disney is guaranteed to give him a blank check and a slap on the back for this new spinoff trilogy he wants to make next. There’s laugh-out-loud humor, edge-of-your-seat suspense, shock-you-into-silence drama, and mesmerizing action. And, of course, it’s a fine and fitting tribute to one of its most valuable and beloved players, the late Carrie Fisher. It’s the capital-E Event of the 2017 holiday movie season, and it delivers.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017)

Directed and Written for the Screen by Rian Johnson

Based on Characters Created by George Lucas

Rated PG-13

Length: 2 hours and 32 minutes