Adnerb the Movie Nerd

Movie reviews from a middle school teacher's perspective

House of Gucci

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Wow!  Ridley Scott’s “House of Gucci” is quite a movie!  This basically true story has it all.  Lady Gaga plays Patrizia, an ambitious party girl who marries into the ultra conservative and super rich House of Gucci.  Adam Driver is Maurizio Gucci, who marries her against his father’s – Rodolfo Gucci played by Jeremy Irons – wishes, and is disinherited.  Rounding out the major players are Al Pacino as Aldo Gucci and Jared Leto (almost unrecognizable) as Paolo Gucci.  They are Maurizio’s uncle and cousin. The plot centers around Patrizia who cajoles, plots, connives and charms Maurizio into taking charge of the Gucci empire – by any means necessary.  Of course, it only ends up destroying the family.  The people in this story are  despicable as they participate in betrayal, tax evasion, back-stabbing, forgery, and even murder.  I am reminded of “The Godfather” in the sense that, at first, you kind of like the characters.  At first! Salma Hayek plays Pina Auriemma who is a television psychic. She advises Patrizia, and as Patrizia and Maurizio’s stars rise, so does hers.  But the greed, jealousy and envy so often at the core of the exercise of wealth based power soon take the auspicious beginnings down the path to turmoil, desperation and an inevitable, futile and sordid end. This is one cautionary movie that will make you glad you were not born into lavish wealth.  Obviously, this is a very adult movie – you would want to leave your children at home. Nonetheless, the acting is superb, the settings extremely well done and the story is engrossing.  I highly recommend this movie for a chance to see the seamy underbelly of the fashion world.

The Little Things

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Yay – our local theatre at Arundel Mills is back in business! We were there for the re-opening, so to speak, since it was the first Saturday the county allowed it to be open in several months. Everything is looking good, and the management is doing a great job. As you can imagine, there were some technical difficulties with starting everything back up. The movie was delayed about 20 minutes so the manager gave everyone a free pass to a future movie for our inconvenience. (We really weren’t inconvenienced, but we’ll take it!). Now to the movie. “The Little Things” stars Denzel Washington as a small town deputy sheriff, Joe “Deke” Deacon, who used to be a big deal detective in Los Angles. Something bad happened during his last case in Los Angeles and he ended up losing his wife, having a heart attack, and having to leave under a dark cloud. Whatever it was will keep you guessing until the end. He’s back in LA on a routine assignment to pick up a piece of evidence, and is delayed and sort of tags along with the current hot shot detective Sgt. Jim Baxter, played by Rami Malek. Baxter is facing a possible serial killer and it seems his case may be related in some ways to a cold case of Deke’s. Jared Leto is his usual weird and creepy villain who may or may not be the sadistic serial killer. Denzel is at his quiet best, and he and Rami finesse their impromptu alliance well. Jared excels in his portrayal of the odd and subtly maleficent suspect. My friend, Dava, says this movie reminds her of “Seven,” starring Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman, with Kevin Spacey. I tend to agree. If you enjoyed “Seven”, are fans of Denzel or Rami, or like to predict what will happen next, this is the movie for you.

Stuber

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Stuber is a not very good buddy film, is a bad comedy, and is a terrible detective/thriller.  David Bautista plays Detective Vic, who loses  his glasses during a shootout, thus ( in his mind anyway) causing the death of this partner.  By the way, kudos to Karen Gillan, who is murdered in the first few minutes of the movie and thus doesn’t have to stick around for this silliness. The “humor and action” come when the detective decides to get lasik surgery and is told he will not be able to see more than a blur for 24 hours.  Of course, he gets a tip right after the operation, but since he can’t drive, he hires an Uber to help him get to the places he needs in order to apprehend the man who killed his partner and bring him to justice.  The Uber driver, Stu (Stu + Uber = Stuber hahaha) is played by Kumail Nanjiani who really just wants a five star review and to get the girl he is pining for.  Anyway, the whole thing is rather silly, but not in a good way. The acting is plebeian at best, the action not inventive, and the writing weak. There are a few laughs here and there, but nothing to warrant even waiting for the release to pay tv.  So you may thank me for helping you dodge a bullet (unlike several characters in the movie) on this one.

Bad Times at the El Royale

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What’s not to like about a movie where you can see Jeff Bridges and Chris Hemsworth acting together?  And throw in Jon Hamm, Dakota Johnson and a slew of others to round out the field and Bad Times at the El Royale will have you guessing from the get go as to what is going on and what’s going to happen to whom! Oh and did I mention that Hemsworth spends a lot of time without his shirt on?  This is one strange but interesting movie!  The El Royale is a fictional motel that straddles the state line between Nevada and California.  Which state do you want to stay in? If you opt for the California side, you will have sunshine but no alcohol, as that side of the hotel lost it’s liquour license.  If you stay on the Nevada side, it looks like rain but no gambling for a similar reason.  But it doesn’t really matter at all. Everyone who stays at the Royale on this particular night has something to hide, even the confused appearing desk clerk.  Jeff Bridges is Father Daniel Flynn.  Or is he?  What’s his interest in Darlene Sweet, the singer on her way to a gig in Reno?  What’s Dakota Johnson’s Emily Summerspring really after? One part Quentin Tarentino, one part film noir and one part Wes Anderson; this film will take you places you weren’t expecting.  I was especially impressed with Cynthia Ervio who plays the down-on-her-luck singer with integrity and plenty of grit. Chris Hemsworth is delicously creepy as Billy Lee, a cult leader a la Charles Manson at his most frightful. The action is fast paced and violence abounds. I found Bad Times at the El Royale, suspenseful, surprising and just a little bit proposterous… but never dull.

Peppermint

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If you enjoy movies like ‘Death Wish’ or ‘The Brave One,’ you will probably enjoy Jennifer Garner’s foray into the revenge movie genre.  She plays Riley North, a woman who survives a brutal attack by drug cartel gunmen while her husband and daughter die before her eyes.  Riley is infuriated when a corrupt system – the judge, district attorney AND defense attorney are almost cartoonishly bad – allows the murderers to go free.  She is remanded for psyciatric evaluation, but escapes and spends some years off the gird learning to fight and use weapons so that she can come back and get revenge on the drug cartel and judicial officials on the take who subverted justice through their greed.  John Ortiz  and John Gallagher, Jr. are the LA police officers on the case and Method Man makes a brief apperance as well.  I don’t feel this movie is as good as some of the others in this genre though, so you might want to consider the new ‘Death Wish’ with Bruce Willis instead.  Of course, as in all of these kinds of movies, there are some plot holes, the inevitable dirty insider in the police department and seemingly impossible events that occur.  I was a little disturbed to see several  people who brought their kids to see this one.  It is extremely violent and I heard two of them talking to each other as they left.  One child said, “I hated this movie” while the other replied, “I didn’t like it, it was boring.”  I wish people would read reviews (like Adnerb, for example) before taking kids to see something that has the potential to  affect their kids.  Anyway, if you want to see a female kicking butt, don’t mind a lot of violence, and can ignore some plot inconsistancies, this movie will pass the time on a rainy Sunday afternoon.  Just don’t bring the children!