Throwback Thursday: Men in Black 3 (2012)

The final film in a movie trilogy is sometimes the hardest one to complete. The legacy of the entire narrative can be dependent on how the closing tale is presented.

Men in Black 3 (2012) is the third film in the Men in Black trinity. Following the events of Men in Black (1997) and Men in Black II (2002), Agent K (Tommy Lee Jones) has retired. He has no idea that an alien he put away years ago, Boris the Animal (Jermaine Clement), has broken out of prison and wants revenge. His plan is to go back to 1969 and assassinate Agent K.

After realizing that this has altered the timeline completely, Agent J (Will Smith) has to back in time. His job is to save the young Agent K (Josh Brolin). But he has only 24 hours to do so. But before he can save K, K has to trust him. Assisted by Griffin (Michael Stuhlbarg), J knows what is on the line if he fails. What he does not know is the secret that K has kept from him.

While it is not Return of the Jedi, Men in Black 3 is the perfect ending within the entirety of the overall story. It has all of the qualities that made Men in Black what it is (despite the failure that is Men in Black II) and gives the characters the ending they deserve.

My only complaint is the usual one. The only females are Agent O (Emma Thompson), Young Agent O (Alice Eve), and Boris’s Girlfriend (Nicole Scherzinger).

Do I recommend it? I am leaning toward yes.

Call Me By Your Name Movie Review

We never forget our first love, especially when we are young. No matter how old we get or who we fall in love with later in life, our first love always stays with us.

In the new film Call Me By Your Name, (based upon the book by Andre Aciman of the same name), 17-year-old Elio (Timothée Chalamet) is spending the summer of 1983 at his family’s Italian chalet. His father, Mr. Perlman (Michael Stuhlbarg) is a professor of Greco-Roman history and takes on a graduate student as a research assistant every summer. His mother, Annella Perlman (Amira Casar) is a linguist. The graduate student who will be living with them and studying with Elio’s father that particular summer is a young man named Oliver (Armie Hammer).  Elio thinks he knows about love, but the summer and his relationship with Oliver will forever change his view of love.

What I absolutely loved about this movie was that it was about first love and how one is forever changed by that first love. While some might object to the film because the two romantic leads are men, I think that is exactly why this film must be seen. We live in a political and social climate where judgments are made about us based upon the labels we give ourselves and the labels others give us. If anything, this film teaches the audience that love is love is love. It doesn’t matter if the partners are heterosexual or homosexual.

I absolutely recommend it.

Call Me By Your Name is presently in theaters. 

The Shape Of Water Movie Review

The story of a romance between a human female and a non human or super human male is not new to readers or audiences.  This basic narrative has been rebooted many times over in many different ways for generations. The question is, can the writer or writers make their narrative stand out from similar narratives?

The new film, The Shape Of Water, takes place in 1962 Baltimore. Elisa (Sally Hawkins) is a mute woman who works for a government facility in the janitorial department. She spends her time with her co-worker and friend (who talks enough for both of them),  Zelda (Octavia Spencer) and her middle-aged bachelor neighbor, Giles (Richard Jenkins). One day, a new classified experiment arrives the facility under the control of Richard Strickland (Michael Shannon). Elisa and Zelda are told to keep their time in the laboratory short, but Elisa’s curiosity gets the best of her.

The experiment is an Amphibian Man (Doug Jones), who Mr. Strickland would like to kill and experiment on. But Dr. Robert Hoffstetler (Michael Stuhlbarg) has a conscious and a secret reason for keeping the creature alive. Can Elisa save this creature and how will that forever change them both?

Using a fairy tale, Beauty and The Beast motif, this film is one of my favorite in 2017. I loved the basic fairy tale narrative blended with life in the early 60’s. Both The Cold War and The Civil Rights Movement are so seamlessly blended into the plot that the audience forgets about the history lesson they are receiving. I would not be surprised if this film did well come awards season.

I recommend it.

The Shape Of Water is presently in theaters.