MOVIE REVIEWS
`Midway'
PG-13 2:18 ★★ 1/2 ☆
Director Roland Emmerich manages to overcome enough self-inflicted battle wounds to achieve a narrow victory with his entertaining and respectful World War II epic “Midway.”
Best known for his bombastic blockbusters “Independence Day,” “Stargate” and “The Day After Tomorrow,” the German filmmaker maximizes his considerable skills at building exciting action sequences — putting audiences in the cockpit of dive-bombing fighter jets, inside the cramped confines of a submarine surrounded by depth charges and on the blazing decks of a bombed-out aircraft career — while struggling to craft a cohesive narrative, fully realized characters and authentic dialogue.
“Midway” dramatically (although rather bloodlessly, given the PG-13 rating) re-creates Japan's stunning Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor; skims through six months of fighting, struggling and strategizing; and then chronicles the titular four-day battle June 4-7, 1942, near Midway Atoll, where the U.S. Navy ambushed the attacking Japanese fleet and inflicted crippling damage on its aircraft carriers.
Like the 1976 film starring Charlton Heston, Henry Fonda and Toshiro Mifune, Emmerich's “Midway” divides time between the U.S. and Japanese forces in telling the story of the decisive Pacific Theater battle, with Etsushi Toyokawa portraying Adm. Yamamoto, Tadanobu Asano as Rear Adm. Yamaguchi and Jun Kunimura as Vice Adm. Nagumo.
But the bulk of the screentime is spent with the real-life American heroes, including Ed Skrein as maverick fighter pilot Dick Best, Mandy Moore as his feisty wife, Patrick Wilson as canny intelligence officer Edwin Layton, Woody Harrelson as steely Adm. Chester Nimitz, Luke Evans as tenacious pilot Wade McClusky, Dennis Quaid as bulldoggish Vice Adm. Bull Halsey and Nick Jonas as fearless Aviation Machinist Mate Bruno Gaido.
Screenwriter Wes Tooke's first feature script has some clunky, cartoonish dialogue, too often delivered in terrible Southern drawls. He and Emmerich can't quite wrangle the sprawling story, especially struggling to make the plotlines about Hollywood director Glenn Ford filming in Midway during the battle and Medal of Honor recipient Jimmy Doolittle (Aaron Eckhart) leading his famous air raid on Japan and subsequently crashing in Japanese-occupied China fit into the action-packed narrative.
But action is what Emmerich does best, and to his credit, and “Midway” soars during the blood-pumping battle sequences. These dizzying scenes serve as a striking reminder that American forces won this crucial victory in planes that were little more than winged tin cans, which gutsy pilots had to maneuver past enemy fighters and through anti-aircraft fire and then plunge into steep dives to drop bombs with pinpoint accuracy on the decks of the Japanese carriers. It was a job only for the bold and brave, and there are worse ways to spend the lead-up to Veterans Day than remembering the men who risked and sacrificed their lives doing that job.
— Brandy McDonnell, The Oklahoman
`Jojo Rabbit'
PG-13 1:48 ★★★★
With his hilarious and heartshattering World War II satire “Jojo Rabbit,” audacious writer, director and actor Taika Waititi triumphantly balances comedy and tragedy, history and fantasy, on a metaphorical knife-edge as sharp as the Nazi-issued dagger his young protagonist carries.
Set in Germany during the waning days of WWII, the New Zealand filmmaker's adaptation of Christine Leunen's novel “Caging Skies” follows 10-yearold Jojo (Roman Griffin Davis), a new Hitler Youth recruit who so fancies himself a Nazi zealot that his imaginary friend is a clownish version of Adolf Hitler (Waititi). But it's hard to imagine a boy less suited for violent fanaticism than tenderhearted Jojo, whose efforts to prove himself at war camp go horribly wrong.
Recovering at home, Jojo discovers that his free-spirited mother Rosie (Scarlett Johansson) has been concealing a Jewish teenager named Elsa (Thomasin McKenzie) in a hidden space in the walls of their house.
When he realizes that he can't turn in Elsa without endangering his mother, Jojo and Elsa slowly develop their own secret relationship. And if you think it was hard to make friends when you were an adolescent, imagine coming of age surrounded by Oscar winner Sam Rockwell as the outlandishly inept Hitler Youth leader Captain Klenzendorf, Rebel Wilson and Alfie Allen as his off-kilter underlings, Stephen Merchant as the deceptively mild-mannered Gestapo officer Herr Deertz and scene-stealer Archie Yates as Jojo's sweet Hitler Youth pal Yorki.
Against considerable odds, Waititi, who is of Maori, Irish and Russian Jewish heritage, has created one of the best films of the year.
— Brandy McDonnell, The Oklahoman
`Pain and Glory'
R 1:53 ★★★ 1/2
An engrossing and empathetic meditation on aging, addiction and loneliness — as well as the transformational power of the arts — “Pain and Glory” is the most personal film yet from Oscar winner Pedro Almodóvar.
The Spanish auteur (“Talk to Her,” “The Skin I Live In”) wisely turned to his frequent collaborator Antonio Banderas to star in his autobiographical drama.
Banderas earns his best actor prize from Frances' Cannes Film Festival — and seems to be a shoo-in for an Oscar nod — with his magnetic turn as Salvador Mallo, celebrated filmmaker plagued with a cavalcade of physical maladies that have left him unable to work, isolated and depressed.
When a Madrid cinema wants to show a newly restored print of his beloved film “Sabor,” Salvador decides to mend his rift with its star, Alberto Crespo (Asier Etxeandia), a passionate performer and longtime heroin addict. Despite his heartbreaking history with the opioid, Salvador's constant pain prompts him to try the drug, to which he immediately becomes addicted.
Salvador's experience “chasing the dragon” leads to a series of reckonings, recollections and revelations — with his ex-lover Federico (Leonardo Sbaraglia), his childhood neighbor Eduardo (César Vicente) and his mother (Oscar winner Penelope Cruz as a young woman and Julieta Serrano as an old and dying one) — that just might free him from his malaise.
Almodóvar brings so much of his signature style to film, and it's ideally accompanied by Alberto Iglesias' evocative score.
“Pain and Glory” could have been a maudlin and self-pitying mess in less skilled hands.
But with Banderas as his lead, Almodóvar is able to make the metafiction film an intimate and relatable cinematic experience.
— Brandy McDonnell, The Oklahoman
Other movies
• “Last Christmas”: PG-13, 1:42, 2 of 4 stars from Thomas Floyd, Special To The Washington Post.
• `Doctor Sleep': R, 2:31 1 1/2 of 4 stars from Jake Coyle, AP Film Writer.
• `Playing with Fire': PG, 1:36, 1 1/2 of 4 stars from Jane Horwitz, Special To The Washington Post.
• `Midnight Traveler': Not rated, 1:30, 3 1/2 of 4 stars from Vanessa H. Larson, Special To The Washington Post.
• `First Love': Not rated, 1:48, Not reviewed.