Gil Mansergh’s Cinema Toast
New Releases For the Week of 8/18/17
Wind River (R)
Starring: Jeremy Renner, Elizabeth Olsen, Graham Greene, Gil Birmingham, Jon Bernthal, Martin Sensmeier, Julia Jones
Directed by: Taylor Sheridan
Hell or High Water screenwriter Taylor Sheridan’s new film, Wind River has a lot in common with the Longmire TV series. Both are set in Wyoming, both feature a lawman (Federal Wildlife Officer and Sheriff) mourning the violent death of a loved one (daughter and wife) in a jurisdiction that is partly an indian reservation. This geographical overlap dictates interaction with the tribal police chiefs and interloping FBI agents. In the movie, the FBI sends a woman—which because she is called in to investigate a violent murder/rape makes both logical and story telling sense. It also sets up the dynamic tension between the “I’m a hunter” male and the “I need to get these Indians to talk to me” female. Both are focused on their job—they just utilize different skill sets to uncover the answers.
3 and 1/2 pieces of Longmire-style Wyoming murder mystery toast
Brigsby Bear (PG-13)
Starring: Kyle Mooney, Mark Hamill, Jane Adams, Greg Kinnear
Director: Dave McCary
James is an immature young man who lives with his overly protective parents and is obsessed with a children’s TV show called Brigsby Bear. The thinly disguised moralizing of the “lets cuddle together” TV characters and the “beware the lure of consumerism” home schooling doesn’t prepare James for the shocking discovery that he was kidnapped as an infant by a couple desperate to have a son. Suddenly thrust into notoriety, James must contend with a well-meaning therapist, a nice-guy detective, and reconciling with the birth parents who “never gave up hope.” Filled with all the kidnapping cliches these SNL alum can muster, Kyle Mooney’s adroit portrayal of James provides a light touch to what could have been a dork and somber story.
2 pieces of can kidnappers be loving parents? toast
The Hitman’s Bodyguard (R)
Starring: Samuel L. Jackson, Ryan Reynolds, Gary Oldman, Salma Hayek, Elodie Young
Directed by: Patrick Hughes
Served up as a humorous buddy-cops movie, even Samuel L. Jackson can’t save this turkey. Jackson is a notorious killer-for-hire who is slated to testify against a Belarusian dictator accused of war crimes. Ryan Reynolds plays the misunderstood security man hired to act as Jackson’s bodyguard. Both lead characters have girlfriends (or former girlfriends) who appear onscreen to reassure everyone that the bromance isn’t something that might rankle the sensibilities of the testosterone demographic. Suffice to say, the expletive-filled quips mouthed whenever there is a break in the gunfire seems very, very familiar.
1 piece did these guys (and gals) really need this paycheck? toast
Logan Lucky (PG-13)
Starring: Channing Tatum, Daniel Craig, Adam Driver, Riley Keogh, Seth MacFarlane, Katie Holmes, Hilary Swank
Directed by: Stephen Soderbergh
The so-called heroes in this movie are a pair of brothers. Jimmy is a divorced high school football star recently fired from his job at a coal mine. Clyde is a one-armed war veteran who tends bar. They both feel disenfranchised (aka put upon by “the man”) so, of course, they decide to steal all the cash generated at the Coca-Cola 600 NASCAR race.
2 and 1/2 pieces of watch it for Daniel Craig as a jailed explosives expert toast
Hare Krishna! The Mantra, the Movement, and the Swami Who Started It All (PG-13)
Directed by: John & Jean Grieser, Lauren Ross
Tantalizing glimpses of Beatle George Harrison, poet Allen Ginsberg and singer Boy George provide historical interest to this documentary on the American life of Srila Prabhupada, the former Kolkata pharmacist who founded the Hare Krishna movement. However the lack of any meaningful nay-saying for a movement branded a “cult” by many and avoiding the guru’s alleged murder, makes the whole thing seem like an infomercial for The International Society For Krishna Consciousness (ISCON).
1 piece of very one-sided propaganda toast