I’m not committing to anything here because I go up to five movie days on Friday & I go back to work next week, but I wrote these from my first two days of press screenings, so here we go. Films with distribution are embargoed, but there’s nothing I like better than a word limit, so here’s 75 words one each film I found worth writing about.
The latest from writer/director Brett Haley, this is a fine but awkwardly made film about a widowed father (Nick Offerman) who finds himself having to finally grow up in the summer before his daughter (Kiersey Clemons) leaves for college. A better film would have focused on her perspective instead; Clemons is great. PS If you also come out thinking Blythe Danner was underused, catch Haley’s earlier, better feature, I’ll See You in My Dreams.
This is a crowd pleaser of a documentary about a litter bred at Guide Dogs for the Blind, & who doesn’t want to be part of a pleased crowd? It follows five puppies from birth all through to graduation – those of them what makes it, anyway. A lot of work goes into training a guide dog, we want them all to be successful, and we feel for their trainers when a dog is ‘career changed’.
I’ll have a full post for On Chesil Beach once it’s not embargoed, but for now the key point is: it’s a movie about a young asexual woman made by people who don’t know that asexuality is a thing, and it would’ve been better if a) they knew it was a thing and b) they focused the film on her instead. Unfortunately, this is what we have. Saoirse’s obviously terrific in it. So’s the cinematography.
5/18/18 The film is now open in NY/LA, and my review can be found here.
This is a movie that some people need, but I didn’t. Beautiful white people in beautiful spaces agonizing over how to keep their kid out of public school: this is a problem I have a hard being invested in. It is, however, also a layered portrayal of a couple raising a gender nonconforming child, which they both accept and don’t accept in a way that feels true. Plus, Claire Danes is still an A++ crier.
wicked jaws 