By Michael C. Woody | Lake Panorama Times
“A Complete Unknown”
I’m a big Bob Dylan fan, so I’ve been eagerly awaiting “A Complete Unknown” starring Timothee Chalamet as the one and only Bob Dylan. The film opens with Dylan hitchhiking to New York state to drop in on a very ill Woody Guthrie to pay homage to his hero. Sitting with Guthrie is Pete Seeger. They ask Dylan to play something, and he does. What a great opening to this movie. The rest of the film traces Dylan’s attempt to make his name as a singer/songwriter, the ups and downs of a couple of relationships (including Joan Baez), and the ground-breaking event of plugging in his guitar at the Newport Folk Festival. Director James Mangold delivers the goods from the first scene to the last in a movie that is one of the five best I saw all year. Grade: A
“Nosferatu”
In this updated version of the 1920s version of the vampire classic “Dracula,” Lily-Rose Depp and Nicholas Hoult play a young couple traveling to the “old country” for a new job. This is one creepy movie and a strong update to the original. Plenty of gore and nasty vampiric activities, enough to make you turn away occasionally. If you are a fan of vampire movies, this will give you an updated look at the movie that started it all. Grade: A-
“BabyGirl”
Nicole Kidman has taken some risky roles in the past, but in “Babygirl” she tops all of them. As the president of a major corporation, she finds herself enamored with a new intern who begins playing sexual games of cat and mouse with his new boss. There is a great deal of nudity and lewd activities in the movie, which can best be described as a hard R-rated film. That being said, the story and the performances are strong enough to give it a high grade. Grade: B+
“The Fire Inside”
Did you know that a female American Olympic athlete has won multiple Olympic gold medals in boxing? Neither did I. This is the true story of Claressa Shields, a boxer from Flint, Michigan, who did just that. It is a wonderful, little-known story of perseverance and dedication. Grade: B+
“Better Man”
It might not surprise you that I had no idea of who Robbie Williams was going into the movie “Better Man.” It seems he is an extremely talented singer/entertainer whose father early in his life pegged him with the nickname “Monkey.” That name stuck so much that, in the entire film, he is depicted as an actual monkey. The film gives us a no-holds-barred look at this man’s life, both the highs and the lows, and there were plenty of both. It is a crazy film, to say the least. But at the end, it was a different — but very entertaining — movie. Grade: B+
“The Last Showgirl”
Admittedly, I dragged my feet on seeing this movie. A movie starring Pamela Anderson as an aging showgirl had little appeal to me. How could it be good? I was wrong. Gia Coppola, the director, is Francis Ford Coppola’s granddaughter, and she has given us a gritty look at the last days of an old school Vegas show. The cast includes Jamie Lee Curtis as one of the dancers and Dave Bautista as the manager charged with shuttering the entertainment venue, but it is Pamela Anderson who steals the show. For that reason alone, I believe she has every right to an Academy Award nomination. Grade: B+
“Wolf Man”
This is the next film in the updates of the old Universal Pictures horror films. We’ve had “The Invisible Man” and now await “The Phantom of the Opera,” “Dracula,” “The Mummy,” “Creature from the Black Lagoon,” “Frankenstein” and “The Bride of Frankenstein,” so now we get “Wolf Man.” The film opens in the deep woods of Oregon (which, by the way, are beautiful) with a father and young son on a hunting hike. The father is overbearing and overly protective of his son. He alludes to a danger in the woods that we never see. Fast forward to current day, the son is married, living in a big city with his wife and young daughter. Like his father, he is overbearing and overly protective of his daughter. When the news arrives that his missing father’s body has been found, the family heads to Oregon to deal with family issues. As the movie title hints, there is a danger in the woods. The movie gets creepy quickly — in a good way. What we end up with is a well-crafted horror film that will lead to many discussions on the way home. Grade: B
“Nickel Boys”
And, finally, the much-touted, brilliantly praised movie, “Nickel Boys.” The film was on most, if not all, of the year’s top 10 movie lists, so we sat down at our art-film theater for a Friday night of movie brilliance. What we saw was the story of young black men from the point of view of one young man. If we see the protagonist, it is not until late in the film. The true story is about a camp for young delinquents and the horrors that these young men faced. It is gruesome and difficult to watch, and the quirky filmmaking makes it more annoying than compelling. At one point, the film projection system (most likely a DVD) had some technical difficulties, leaving audio intact but the picture frozen on something unrecognizable. The filmmaking up to that point was so strange that most of the audience remained in their seats thinking this was just part of the movie. We sat there for 15 minutes before we all realized this was not right. Unfortunately, we had mentally checked out way before the DVD froze. What a disappointment. Grade: D
Michael C. Woody has been reviewing movies on radio and television since 1986. He and his wife, Susan, are residents of Lake Panorama.