Adnerb the Movie Nerd

Movie reviews from a middle school teacher's perspective

Don’t Look Up

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“Don’t Look Up” is stuffed to the brim with stars who can act.  Some of those you will see in this movie are:  Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Cate Blanchett, Timothee Chalamet, Meryl Streep, Jonah Hill, Mark Rylance, Ariana Grande and Tyler Perry.  This is a tongue-in-cheek satire which will not appeal to everyone.  The premise is that two astronomers, Randall Mindy and Kate Dibiasky,  played by DiCaprio and Lawrence, discover that a comet larger than the one that killed the dinosaurs is heading for earth. But this one is large enough to completely destroy life on the planet. The comet will arrive in six months.  As our intrepid astronomers try to warn people and get them to take the situation seriously, no one believes them or even seems to care.  The media, portrayed by Blanchett and Perry, are parodied as the typical, utterly shallow and phony entertainment influencers of today. Blanchett is only focused on how handsome Mindy is, and loses interest in him once he loses his ratings draw.  Perry is a mindless, sycophant.  And of course, alternative media steps in to provide the idiotic, anti-science opposition. The government initially takes things seriously, but thanks to the interference of a mega-donor communications company owner (Rylance), hoping to exploit the resources the comet contains, they switch to his plan.  Of course, the plan fails utterly and we are all undone.  Meryl Streep plays the president of the United States as a clueless Trump-like character, while Jonah Hill is absolutely despicable as as her son (and Chief of Staff) who doesn’t appear to have ANY people skills whatsoever, or any intelligence for that matter.  You may feel like punching both of them by the end of the movie. There are some serious topics lampooned including greed, gullibility, nepotism, media responsibility, corruption, vanity, celebrity-obsession and politics. Sounds like a rather heavy handed, if absolutely on point, pillorying the worst aspects of social media and politics? It is. If you watch, make sure you watch the mid-credit scene because you will be glad you did! I loved this, and right now you can only see it on Netflix, so no worries about going out to a theatre.

Red Sparrow

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Do you get excited when you hear a movie is full of graphic and sadistic torture scenes?  Have you always wanted to see Jennifer Lawrence completely naked?  Do you look forward to  a movie with a terrible script?  If you answered ‘yes’ to each one of these questions, Red Sparrow is the movie for you.  Unfortunately, I answered ‘no’ and did not care for this movie.  The trailers make Red Sparrow sound like it will be an interesting, thoughtful movie.  If only the trailer writer could have written the script!  There are some very gruesome special effects to help explain why promising ballerina Dominika Egorova (Lawrence) is sent to Sparrow School, aka Whore University, by her sleazy uncle.  Sparrow school teaches you how to become detached from your emotions so that you can have sex as one of many methods of controlling or eliminating potential informants and enemies (the movie seems to focus mainly on the first method though).  The ultimate goal is  gain information for the Russian government.  It takes almost 2 1/2 hours to get to the minor plot twist pay-off.  This movie wastes some good actors, like Joel Edgerton, Jeremy Irons, Charlotte Rampling, Mary-Louis Parker and Ciaran Hinds.  With this talent, I expected more, but got so much less!

mother!

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I am not one to give you spoilers, so don’t read this review if you do not want a little hint as to what this movie is about.  That said, I can guarantee that you will be totally confused without this hint.  I went to this movie without knowing that the whole thing was an allegory.   Knowing this upfront would have helped me get at least a little grasp of what was going on. I thought from the trailers that I would be seeing a kind of updated Rosemary’s Baby. I think the trailers were misleading. Ready?  Here it is, your hint….the movie is an allegory for Mother Earth and the first book of The Bible.  Each character, outside of Mother herself, represents a character in the Bible.  I could readily discern Mother Earth, God, Jesus, Adam, Eve, Cain and Able.  There are probably a lot more, but those are the ones I figured out.  Even knowing this, “Mother” is bewildering.  The cinematography is great, but that just isn’t enough.  Jennifer Lawrence is very subdued as a newlywed who is married to a writer.  They live in a gigantic, creepy house in the middle of nowhere.  Ed Harris and Michelle Pfieffer are spooky as a couple who appear out of nowhere and are inexplicably invited by Jennifer’s husband, Javier Bardem, to stay with them.  Things only get weirder, as more and more odd things happen, and crowds of people arrive in increasingly complex scenarios .  By the end of the movie, it seems as if the whole of humanity is living, loving and fighting in that house.  Will you like this movie?  I really don’t think many people will like it.  It is a brutal roller coaster of perplexing  allegories and people doing things that just don’t make any sense.  I am not giving it a rotten apple only because the performances are excellent, and I love Ed Harris and Javier Bardem.  But I think you will be happy to have missed this one.

Passengers

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Do not listen to some of the poor reviews this movie is getting- I thoroughly enjoyed this sci-fi love story, and think you will too.  Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt are passengers on a 120-year journey to another planet. Something goes wrong and their hibernation pods wake them up 90 years early.  Themes explored in this movie are: making the most of whatever situation you find yourself in, living life to the fullest, overcoming isolation and finding love in the most unlikely places. There is a central ethical dilemma that should cause discussion among friends who see this movie together.  Would you have made the same decision Pratt’s character is forced to make?  I loved Michael Sheen as a witty android bartender who accidentally spills the beans on Pratt’s choice.  Laurence Fishburne is surprisingly poignant in his brief appearance as Gus Mancuso ,who brings some much needed pathos and some timely advice.  Andy Garcia is the only actor I found with an unsatisfying part in this movie; he appears for about 5 seconds and has no lines.  I hope he at last earned a decent paycheck! I highly recommend this movie and think you should see it for yourself and make up your own mind.