Sully (Rhoades)

Front Row at the Movies

“Sully” Recounts Miracle on the Hudson

Reviewed by Shirrel Rhoades

On January 15, 2009, US Airways Flight 1549 hit some birds while taking off from New York’s LaGuardia Airport forcing the pilot to land the plane in the Hudson River. The pilot’s calm landing on water and ushering his passengers onto the wing to await rescue resulted in him being hailed as a hero.

But Chesley Burnett “Sully” Sullenberger, III said he didn’t feel like a hero. He was just doing his job.

In the movie titled “Sully,” Tom Hanks takes on the role of the self-effacing pilot with customary ease. Aaron Eckhart joins him as Jeffrey Skiles, First Officer of the downed Airbus A320. And Laura Linney portrays Lorraine Sullenberger, Sully’s wife.

“Sully” is now flying high at Tropic Cinema.

As directed by Clint Eastwood, “Scully” goes beyond the plane’s miraculous landing on the frigid waters of the Hudson. “For me, the real conflict came after,” says Eastwood, “with the investigative board questioning his decisions, even though he’d saved so many lives.”

Tom Hanks, totally in character with Sully’s close-cropped white hair and mustache, sees this as a feel-good movie. “In the political atmosphere we’re in, there are an awful lot of points being made on the notion that you can’t count on people and institutions because they’re all broken -- that none of them work,” says Hanks. “Well, that’s nonsense. They’re not all broken. And you can still have faith in them. And, in that regard, I think this movie makes a really strong case.”

In recognition for saving the 155 passengers of Flight 1549, Sully Sullenberger and his crew were awarded the National Air and Space Museum’s highest honor: the 2010 Current Achievement Trophy.

“My entire life is being judged on the basis of those 3 minutes and 28 seconds,” says the real-life Sully. “We never know which flight will test us ... I had gotten to a point late in my career when I thought that test would never happen to me. I was wrong.”

srhoades@aol.com

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (Rhoades)

Front Row at the Movies

“Miss Peregrine’s Home” Has Openings for Odd Students

Reviewed by Shirrel Rhoades

Call me crazy, but I want filmmaker Tim Burton to direct my nightmares. He has such a frightening yet beguiling view of the darkside.

Remember his “Corpse Bride”? Or “Sleepy Hollow” with its galloping horseman topped by a pumpkin head? Or “Alice in Wonderland” with its phantasmagorical imagery? Or “Edward Scissorhands” with his sharpened digits? Or creepy but cool “Beetlejuice”?

You get the idea. Burton’s dreamscape is filled with weird inhabitants.

Same is true for his latest film, “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children.” It’s currently spooking audiences at Tropic Cinema.

At the Home you will encounter a girl who eats through a mouth in the back of her head (Raffiella Chapman), an invisible boy in a time loop (Cameron King), a boy who has prophetic dreams (Hayden Keeler-Stone), a pyrokinetic teen (Lauren McCrostie), a very strong child (Pixie Davies), a girl who can control the growth of plants (Georgia Pemberton), a teenager who can resurrect the dead for a short time (Finlay MacMillan), a teenager with  bees living in his stomach (Milo Parker), and masked twin brothers (Joseph and Thomas Odwell).

Heading up the Home is Miss Alma LeFay Peregrine (Eva Green), a mysterious headmistress who has been protecting her odd charges from Mr. Barron (Samuel L. Jackson). He’s leader of the Wights, undead human creatures that hunt and kill peculiar children.

All this is seen through the eyes of 16-year-old Jacob Portman (Asa Butterfield), the boy introduced to the school by Emma Bloom (Ella Purnell), an aerokinetic girl who can breath away the bottom of the sea with her tsunami breath. Can Jake protect Miss Peregrine’s young charges from the Wights and evil Hollowgasts (tentacle-mouthed humanoid creatures)?

 “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children” is based on the same-named Young Adult book by Ransom Rigs.

Tim Burton follows suit and aims this movie at kids ... threatening your youngster with troubled sleep.

srhoades@aol.com

The Girl on the Train (Brockway)

Tropic Sprockets by Ian Brockway

The Girl on the Train

This year's best selling novel, The Girl on the Train has been brought to the screen by director Tate Taylor (The Help). The cinematography is perfectly moody and dark in keeping with the environment of the protaganist, Rachel, a middle aged embittered woman who constantly doubts herself because of alcoholism and rides a train to and from New York City. The atmosphere matches the novel to a tee and the film boasts a powerful performance by Emily Blunt in the lead role. If only that was enough to keep this film on the rails; the film lags by a slow dreary pace, generic drama and confusing flashbacks.

Aside from Blunt's excellent portrayal of Rachel Watson, this shocker has the flat feel of your run-of-the-mill suburban slasher story. Rachel is a middle aged, unemployed and divorced woman. Having nothing to occupy her days or nights, she rides a commuter train for hours on end and drinks vodka. She entertains herself by inventing stories about total strangers that pass outside her window.

Rachel fixates on a house that she passes every night, occupied by a seemingly happy couple. One particular day at the house, Rachel sees the girl kissing and embracing another man. The next day, Rachel feels depression and self pity, and incessantly calls her ex, Tom (Justin Theroux). Rachel wakes up a bloody mess and the anonymous girl, Megan Hipwell (Haley Bennett), is missing. Is Rachel guilty?

The main stumbling blocks to any apprehension one might feel are the endless flashbacks and vignettes (e.g., six months earlier, two months later, last Friday) that make it all a chore to keep it straight. Suspense should never be laborious. Add to that the vexation that the two secondary characters, Anna (Rebecca Ferguson) and Megan (Bennett) are nearly identical to one another and it is quite easy to become lost on the tracks.

By the end, it all crystalizes, but there is little to hook you in your seat at the beginning and middle of this inclement commute which plays longer than it should.

The most pleasing aperitif is Blunt alone as the wandering, pensive and seething Rachel, whose moods are as volatile as her dramatic energy. Her role is the only one that is full of body and charge. The other three portrayals of Megan, Scott and Anna are insipid, and make "The Girl on the Train" turn from what started as a fine Noir into so much acetic acid.

Write Ian at ianfree1@yahoo.com

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (Brockway)

Tropic Sprockets by Ian Brockway

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

It is old home week yet again with the visionary Tim Burton. In "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children," adapted from a young adult novel by Ransom Riggs, he has monstrously mixed results.

Jake (Asa Butterfield) is an awkward and passive young teenager in suburban Florida. Girls and social situations inhibit him. His only relief are the evenings with his grandfather, Abe (Terrence Stamp) who believes he once travelled the world, fighting supernatural beasts and was forced to take refuge in a Welsh estate for magical children in 1943.

Jake's dad, Franklin (Chris O' Dowd) thinks dear old dad is suffering from dementia and PTSD, scarred from the war. Jake, dark-haired and pale in the manner of Max from Where the Wild Things Are  and "Edward Scissorhands" looks quizzical and mystified. He is taken to a psychiatrist (Allison Janney). Seeing his grandfather's dead body sans eyes, the doctor suggests that a trip to Wales would perhaps stop the boy's nightmares and bring closure.

Once there, Jake manages to set out for the his grandfather's beloved place and finds a mansion in picturesque ruins, very like Disneyworld's Haunted Mansion. The mysterious story of Abe and his battle with creatures, set against the bland conformity of Tampa (the eerie against the commonplace) is much more vibrant and compelling than the quirky assortment of Addamsian characters featured in the home: a pair of papier-mâché twins, an Alice in Wonderland as light as air who must wear lead shoes, a boy with a hive of bees in his body, a girl that can command the plant world and an adorable little girl with an angry set of monster teeth in the back of her head.

It takes all kinds and Lady Gaga would feel right at home. The actor Eva Green does excellently as the stern but caring Miss Peregrine. The spots of tension between the jaded unimaginative father who represents the humdrum world and the frustrated Jake are the film's best moments and one wishes there were more.

Samuel L. Jackson appears in typecast form as public Meanie #1

When all is revealed in Burton's Caligari cabinet, the mind's eye turns into an over-stimulated Cyclops and it gets a little too much. The weird becomes rote and routine. Granted, the effects are fun and kids will enjoy watching marching skeletons attack and take control on amusement park grounds while the monsters are pelted with candy in the attitude of an old cartoon.

In "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children" all is well in the peanut gallery. This is a Hallowtween parade and when the off-white shutters go askew, something wicked this way comes. Yet any cinema-dwelling Peculiar will tell you that it is far better to conceal than to show.

Write Ian at ianfree1@yahoo.com

The Birth of a Nation (Brockway)

Tropic Sprockets by Ian Brockway

The Birth of a Nation

Nate Parker's unapologetic and earthy "The Birth of a Nation " is a visceral account of the Nat Turner Rebellion of 1831 which resulted in the deaths of 55 to 65 white people and 200 black people in retalliation.

The film is bluntly told and unnerving to watch. To its impactful and vital credit (no matter if you are bothered by the director's troubled implications in a rape case or not) the film does not shy away from the unspeakable horror and gore perpetrated by slavery and white hands.

Nat Turner (played by director Nate Parker) is a slave and self taught preacher who grew up hearing that he was sent by God to make prophecy. Slave-owner Samuel Turner (Armie Hammer) leads him around as trophy to speak on the invented virtue of courtesy to slave holders, fictionally backed by biblical verses. Nat sees horror after horror, including the wrenching out of teeth with metal pliers in an attempt to feed men while they are shackled in heavy flesh-biting irons in a dark basement.

Nat craftily learns to use the bible against the slaveholders as a weapon of freedom. A brief respite from the violence occurs with the sight of Cherry (Aja Naomi King). The young woman, no stranger to abhorrent abuse herself is remarkably spirited. The two fall in love. All the while the pair is hunted by the disgusting Raymond Cobb (Jackie Earle Haley).

The film is a Brueghel painting showing the sickening glee of hatred in its most diseased form. Men, woman and children dressed for a Sunday outing, snarl, spit and cheer, calling for black blood and it rightly gives the viewer nausea.

Turner, bound by wood and iron and draped by night, becomes Jesus. He alone  points the way for others to fight the good fight against slavery decades later in the Civil War.

No matter how one feels about the director Nate Parker himself, the provocatively titled "The Birth of a Nation" (named and reclaimed after the unabashedly racist D.W. Griffith film of 1915) deserves to be seen for its fine depiction of Nat Turner, the man.

Write Ian at ianfree1@yahoo.comT

Week of October 7 - 13 (Rhoades)

Tropic Overview

Tropic Cinema Skips through Time

Reviewed by Shirrel Rhoades

From past to the present to worlds of fantasy, this week’s Tropic films take you on cinematic tours.

“The Birth of a Nation” takes us back to 1831, to a rebellion led by Nat Turner, a Virginia slave. Nate Parker both directs and stars as Turner in this epic historical drama. USA Today proclaims, “A work this powerful would be impressive for any filmmaker, so the fact that this is Parker’s first directorial feature is undoubtedly amazing.” And HitFix declares it to be “a vibrant, furious piece of work.”

On the other hand, “The Girl on the Train” is an up-to-the-minute psychological thriller in which an alcoholic ex-wife (Emily Blunt) rides the train past her old neighborhood, fantasizing about a woman who lives a few houses away. One day she witnesses her being abducted ... but is it what it seems? No, nothing is. The Straits Times notes, “The extraordinary thing … is that the hype around this bestseller-turned-movie has not lessened the story's ability to deliver a punch.” And AwardsCircuit.com concludes, “The film boasts an all-out amazing performance from Emily Blunt …”

With “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, ” director Tim Burton again leads us down a fanciful rabbit hole, introducing Miss Peregrine (Eva Green) who oversees some very strange wards. A boy (Asa Butterfield) must step forward to protect them from murderous Mr. Barron (Samuel L. Jackson). Rolling Stone says, “Tim Burton (is) repeating tricks from his greatest hits (think Beetlejuice and Edward Scissorhands). But stick with it just for those times when Burton flies high on his own peculiar genius.” And La Nacion adds, “Another of the many adaptations by Burton that shows that every story has a dark side. It's like it was written for him.”

“Hell or High Water” is a tale of West Texas in which an old lawman (Jeff Bridges) chases a pair of bank-robbing brothers (Chris Pine and Ben Foster). It may be the best movie of the year. Philadelphia Inquirer tells us, “‘Hell or High Water’ is at once a tale of desperation in hard times, and a keenly observed character study – or studies.” And Indie London says it’s “destined to become a modern classic – and deservedly so.

And rounding up the Tropic’s lineup is Ron Howard’s documentary about the Fab Four, “Beatles:  Eight Days a Week – The Touring Years.” This is a musical look at Beatles’ concert years, 1962-1966. Urban Cinefile tells us, “I tapped my toes throughout Ron Howard’s fabulous documentary that gives a real sense of the time, the Beatles’ talent and the Beatle-mania that sweeps the world in the 60s ...” And Sydney Morning Herald sums it up: “For those of us who can remember, it's a deliriously evocative nostalgia trip …”

Five films skipping through time at the Tropic – quite a tour!

srhoades@aol.com

The Girl on the Train (Rhoades)

Front Row at the Movies

“The Girl on the Train” Delivers a Taut Psychological Thriller

Reviewed by Shirrel Rhoades

I used to commute to work on Metro-North. As the train rumbled through the countryside I would gaze out the window at the perfect little houses inhabited by perfect little families, from time to time catching glimpses of their lives through unshaded windows. From time to time, I would image who these people might be, what they did for a living, whether they were happy or not, how did they spend their day?

Sometimes I’d see something, movements, almost from the corner of my eye, like a snapshot that’s unfocused. Was it an act of violence, a domestic disturbance? No, these were happy people I told myself.

Yet I recalled that 1945 film “Lady on a Train” in which Deanna Durbin is a commuter who witnesses a murder from her train window. Could it be …? Naw.

Nevertheless, novelist Paula Hawkins imagined something like this in her eleven-million-copy bestseller “The Girl on the Train.”

And director Tate Taylor (“The Help”) has brought it to the screen. You can catch “The Girl on the Train” this week at Tropic Cinema.

It tells the story of Rachel Watson (Emily Blunt), a divorcee who is having a bad time. Although she’s lost her job, she still takes the train as if going to work in order to keep up appearances.

The train passes by her old house, where her ex (Justin Theroux) lives with his new wife and child. A few houses away, she spots a happy couple (Haley Bennett and Luke Evans) that she fanaticizes about. Then one trip, she spots the woman struggling with a man. Is she being abducted?

Drinking too much following her divorce, Rachel suffers from blackouts and can’t trust her own senses. But when she hears the woman has gone missing, she knows she has to come forward with her story.

But there’s more to it than meets the eye.

Could Rachel be responsible for the woman’s disappearance?

This psychological thriller has been described as the next “Gone Girl.”

I’m glad I don’t ride a train anymore. There’s too much temptation to insert yourself in other people’s lives. As “The Girl on the Train” shows us, that can be dangerous.

srhoades@aol.com