Adnerb the Movie Nerd

Movie reviews from a middle school teacher's perspective

Ford Vs. Ferrari

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I know absolutely nothing about auto racing, and even less about the famous French 24 Hours of LeMans endurance race.  Did you know that the race is exactly what it says – a 24 hour auto race at speeds of up to 200 miles per hour?  I didn’t know that.  Did you know that a team of two racers take turns driving in four hour shifts?  I didn’t know that either.  This movie was quite an education for me, and it entertained me too!  Ford vs. Ferrari tells the true story of car designer (and one-time racer) Carroll Shelby (Matt Damon) and his friendship with driver Ken Miles (Christian Bale).  When Ferrari patriarch Enzo Ferrari rejects a deal for a merger with Henry Ford II in an insulting way, Ford decides he is going to win the next LeMans.  Shelby is hired to design and build the car, price is no object, as long as he is willing to listen to a committee of executives that include sympathetic Lee Iacocca (Jon Bernthal) and Leo Beebe (Josh Lucas), who doesn’t like the driver Shelby has hand picked.  Ken Miles is rebellious to say the least and is apt to do or say something that doesn’t reflect the image Ford wants to project (this is the 60’s).  The movie does a really good job of showing the ins and outs of the auto racing industry, as well as the excitement and hazards of racing itself. It also shows the deceit and venality that seem to continue to be a hallmark of how business men conduct themselves. There is some good acting on the parts of Matt Damon and Christian Bale, but all the supporting actors are excellent too.  After you see the movie, google Carroll Shelby and Ken Miles – the movie is really good but still doesn’t do either men full justice.

 

21 Bridges

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What makes this police action thriller rise above the usual ‘cop out for vengance’ movie is the performance of Chadwick Boseman.  I wasn’t sure about another action oriented cop drama.  But I loved him as Jackie Robinson in ’42’ and as T’Challa in ‘Black Panther,’ and so I was willing to give his latest a go.  In this movie, he takes on a role that Denzel Washington might have played back in the day.  The plot is simple.  Two young men are interrupted in the middle of a robbery by some policmen.  When the dust and bullets finally clear,  seven officers are dead.  Precinct Captain McKenna (J.K. Simmons) is out for vengeance for his men, and feels that rogue detective, Andre Davis (Chadwick Boseman) – who has used his weapon to kill 8 suspects in as many years – is the only person who can make this right.  Davis is saddled with a with a tough partner in Narcotics agent Frankie Burns (Sienna Miller).  She seems to know her stuff, but is that all she knows? The perps are caught on a traffic camera, and identified.  Andre is able to deduce that they are probably still in Manhatten.  In a somewhat unlikely plot device, all 21 bridges that lead into Manhattan are blocked off so that no one can get in or out, including the killers.  As Davis gets closer to the perps, he begins to suspect that not all is as it seems.  The resolution is tense and action packed, if not totally believable.  But, if you like action thrillers, there is nothing here that will disappoint you.

Knives Out

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“Knives Out” is an old-fashioned who dunnit and I mean that in the best possible way.  “Knives Out” is packed full of talented performances, from seasoned troupers like Daniel Craig, Chris Evans, Jamie Lee Curtis, Toni Collette, Don Johnson, Christopher Plummer and Michael Shannon.  Who dunnits always include a murder, suspects and an old spooky mansion.  This movie has it all and then some!  The house is full of esoteric antiques, secret rooms and doors, dark corners and creaky stairs.  Everyone, and I mean everyone, is a suspect.  The action centers on the apparent “suicide” of patriarch millionaire Harlan Thrombey, played by Chrisopher Plummer.  He is found in his study with a slit throat – which the police are considering a suicide.  In walks private detective Benoit Blanc (deliciously played by Daniel Criag. He’s not just James Bond anymore!) who believes the death may have been a murder most foul.  He interviews the motley collection of relatives who ALL have a motive, and one seemingly saintly care giver (played perfectly by Ana de Armas) who appears to be the only person in the house Harlan could stand.  This movie is going to remind you of Clue, Murder She Wrote, KFC, Foghorn Leghorn, and Agatha Christie, but with modern touches thrown in.  I couldn’t really spoil the plot if I tried because there are several reveals and all is not as it seems to be (of course).  This movie is a lot of fun to watch and I imagine the actors had fun playing their parts to the hilt.  I am giving this movie a golden apple because, well I throughly enjoyed it, and on this Thanksgiving Day I am thankful for movies that entertain and surprise me.  What more do we need on Thanksgiving? turkey, stuffing, gravy……….

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

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This movie definitely was not what I expected.  I thought it was going to be a biopic about Fred Rogers.  Instead, it is the story of journalist Tom Junod (LLoyd Vogel in the movie) and how just meeting Fred Rogers changed his outlook on life, and in the end made him a better person.  That approach might have even made this a more interesting movie.  Lloyd Vogel, who is played by Matthew Rhys, is a jaded journalist whose reputation is so tarnished by his angry approach, that he is having a hard time getting interviews.  Esquire magazine is doing a spread about American heroes and asks Vogel to write an article about TV’s Fred Rogers.  They figure it would be hard to mess this assignment up.  And Rogers is the only person who agrees to let Vogel  interview him anyway.   Vogel is sure he will uncover the dirt on this way too nice appearing guy, but he doesn’t.  There apparently isn’t any dirt, he’s the real thing!  The Fred Rogers you see on the screen is the Fred Rogers you get in real life too.  Vogel and Rogers forge an unlikely friendship in which Fred shares some of his problems in life; like his boys’ troubled teenage years trying to cope with a famous father or the fact that he was teased when he was a kid for being chubby.  Rogers helps Vogel deal with his absent, philandering father (played by Chris Cooper) and his mother’s death many years ago, which still haunts him.  This is such a sweet movie, I don’t see how anyone could leave feeling sad.  Because Mr. Rogers was such a nice man, there are all kinds of rumors about him, he hated kids, swore like a sailor, or was a Navy Seal.  Not so! This movie does an excellent job of showing you what made this man tick and how he was able to touch the individuals he met and how they touched him.  Also, Mrs. Rogers gives this movie two thumbs up and apppears in a brief cameo in a Chinese restaurant.  If you don’t want to miss her, look for pictures on the internet so you know what to expect.

The Good Liar

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Wow, what an acting triumph for two of my favorite actors – Ian McKellan and Helen Mirren.  I am going to sound a little vague because I don’t want to spoil anything.  Roy (Ian McKellan) is a career con man who swindles businessmen with dodgy investments and romances lonely widows out of their pensions.  He decides to bilk a wealthy widow, Betty (Helen Mirren), out of her money by seemingly meeting her randomly on a senior dating site.  They hit it off and slowly develop close feelings for each other.  She lets him stay in her home, and they even take a trip to Germany together.  Betty’s grandson begins to suspect that his mother’s beau isn’t all he seems to be, but she won’t hear anything negative about him.  Roy has an actual partner in crime, who is played by Jim Carter (Mr. Carson on Downton Abbey) who, as you can imagine, is playing a character as far removed from the honorable butler as can be.  There are a lot of twists and turns in this story, but I won’t go into them.  That would be telling!  But there are some fine performances all around.  What else could you expect?  Between the three of them, they have a combined age of 225.  That is a lot of experience and it really shows!  I am not sure this would be appeal to people under forty, but only because the main characters are in their 70s and 80s.  That is too bad, because they will  be missing quite a treat!