BEFORE: It took about a half-day to recover from whatever was ailing me, whether it was food poisoning or possibly just too much rich food from the casino buffet. Either way, I went about 24 hours without eating anything, and half a day just lying on the recliner, drifting in and out of sleep, sipping ginger ale. But by nighttime I was up for watching TV and getting the next movie in, it's another Academy screener from work, which saves me the trouble of paying $4.99 to watch this on Amazon Prime.
Caleb Landry Jones carries over from "The Florida Project" for his third film in a row and his fourth this month.
THE PLOT: A mother personally challenges the local authorities to solve her daughter's murder when they fail to catch the culprit.
AFTER: Now I feel like I'm getting somewhere with the Oscar-nominated films of 2017, because this one received TWO acting Oscars, for Frances McDormand and Sam Rockwell, plus there was so much hype for it that I believed it would probably win Best Picture, as topical as it is, because what chance would some little fantasy film about a fish-man have, in the end? Go figure - but then again, I don't vote on these things, and I only know two people that do, and both were raving about this film.
Like "God's Pocket", it's a dark film about people interacting with each other in a very specific location, and there's violence and betrayal and people not seeing eye-to-eye, but that other film felt rather ridiculous in the end, while this one feels all too real. We can imagine the frustration associated with an unsolved crime, and the need to act out, even if that's not in a very positive way, because at least then you're doing SOMETHIING instead of nothing. I've known for a while that there would be some very dark themes in Year 10, and so far I've dealt with dead parents ("People Like Us" "A Monster Calls", "You Can Count on Me"), dead children ("Rabbit Hole", "Collateral Beauty"), dead husbands ("Dolores Claiborne"), dead wives ("Love Liza") and now we're into dead teen sons ("God's Pocket") and dead teen daughters. More films on this theme are definitely coming up.
The teen daughter's death is the focal point of this film, but it also explores other issues, none of which are shiny-happy. Racism, police brutality, vigilante justice, terminal illness, spousal abuse, teen bullying, and that's just for starters. (I'm withholding a couple topics for fear of spoilers...) It's definitely a rich story with a lot of things about Midwestern culture that it wants to explore, but I think in the end this sort of cuts both ways, because despite all the ambition I can't help but think that the story could have used a little more focus. Like, maybe concentrate on three or four social injustices, and then maybe the overall argument becomes a little stronger? Just a thought.
There's definitely a reflection of the current zeitgeist here, as protests have been organized over the last year for everything from Trump's election to Anti-Nazi rallies, the women's movement, and school shootings. This movie shows a lot of anti-protest sentiment, which I'm sure exists, but also seems to be against the basic rules of our society. This country was founded on protests like the Boston Tea Party, among many others, and I don't think there can be anything MORE American than protesting. People who are against protesting are probably FOR it when they agree with the protestors, but you just can't have it both ways. If you allow protests when you agree with the issue, then you have to let the opposing opinion be heard, as long as their protest is peaceful and doesn't get out of hand. Right?
Also starring Frances McDormand (last heard in "The Good Dinosaur"), Woody Harrelson (last seen in "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2"), Sam Rockwell (last seen in "Matchstick Men"), John Hawkes (last seen in "Winter's Bone"), Peter Dinklage (last heard in "The Angry Birds Movie"), Abbie Cornish (last seen in "A Good Year"), Kerry Condon (last heard in "Spider-Man: Homecoming"), Darrell Britt-Gibson (last seen in "Keanu"), Lucas Hedges (last seen in "Labor Day"), Zeljko Ivanek (last seen in "X-Men: Apocalypse"), Amanda Warren (last seen in "Seven Psychopaths"), Kathryn Newton (last seen in "Bad Teacher"), Samara Weaving, Clarke Peters (last seen in "John Wick"), Sandy Martin (last seen in "Lovelace"), Christopher Berry (also last seen in "Spider-Man: Homecoming"), Malaya Rivera Drew, Jerry Winsett, Nick Searcy, Brendan Sexton III.
RATING: 6 out of 10 stuffed animals
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