I, Tonya: Movie Review

Uproariously entertaining with astute insight into Tonya Harding.

Craig Gillespie, director of I, Tonya, opts for a comedic breaking-the-fourth-wall type biopic where characters in mid-action will either deny or confirm what they’re currently doing. When Tonya has a rifle aimed at ex-husband Jeff’s head, she says she didn’t do it. When Jeff slams Tonya’s fingers in the car door, he says he didn’t do it. But you know they did do most of it. The style works for a too-crazy-to-be-true true story.		2017 Directed by: Craig Gillespie Screenplay by: Steven Rogers Starring: Margot Robbie, Sebastian Stan, Allison Janney, Paul Walter Hauser

Pitch Perfect 3: Movie Review

Ludicrous plot doesn’t fit the Pitch Perfect tone.

Given the poor reception that Pitch Perfect 3 has received, it would be tempting to say the series has gone out with a whimper instead of a bang, but no, the movie literally goes out with a bang. The Bellas are performing on a yacht, Fat Amy comes crashing through a glass ceiling, blows up the boat, and Amy and Beca jump into the water together. How do we get there? Well Fat Amy becomes a fighting ninja, the Bellas get kidnapped by an international assassin, while they’re touring with the USO in Europe.		2017 Directed by: Trish Sie Screenplay by: Kay Cannon and Mike White Starring: Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson, Brittany Snow, Anna Camp

Darkest Hour: Movie Review

A mini-roller coaster of boorish, comic and political statesman.

As Joe Wright has done in all of his previous films, particularly the period pieces such as Anna Karenina and Atonement, he perfectly captures the style for the setting. In Darkest Hour, it’s a sepia-toned British Parliament, with a hundred men all wearing black suits shouting about their ineptitude to stop the German advances of World War II. It’s May 1940, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain is about to resign and Britain, and the world, need a new leader to help them defeat Hitler.		2017 Directed by: Joe Wright Screenplay by: Anthony McCarten Starring: Gary Oldman, Kristin Scott Thomas