Interstellar (2014)

Director: Christopher Nolan

Cast: Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Michael Caine

Have I Seen It Before?: I’ve finally gotten around to see my big blind spot in the Nolan catalog.

Did I like it?: One needs to open any review of a Nolan movie by reminding oneself that there are few better craftsman working today than Nolan in terms of pure cinema. Only one man could pull Batman out of the cinematic depths, and his craft makes his one of the few films that managed to play in this rinky-dink town in 35mm.

So why does this movie not work for me as well as some of his other entries? The most obvious reason would be that I neglected to see it in the theaters, the venue for which Nolan ideally intended it. He’s steeped this film so firm the tradition of Kubrick, and if there is one thing I’ve learned from these reviews, it is that all things Kubrickian are best enjoyed on the largest screen possible.

Then again, my less than thorough acceptance of the film may have something to do with the fact that—as I write this review—we’re all spending at least some part of our day contemplating wearing masks and wondering how long our food supplies will last.

It may be the wrong time to take the film in, but it is a testament to the skills of Nolan that I think another chance is warranted. And the film itself does recommend itself to that second viewing. It’s meticulously designed, often visually stunning (if, again, derivative of Kubrick and 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), and acted with a far greater range of emotion than most movies that involve space travel and (spoilers) a magic bookshelf, and the sheer amount of surprises in the cast kept things lively throughout.

IT - Chapter Two (2019)

Director: Andy Muschietti

Cast: Jessica Chastain, James McAvoy, Bill Hader, Isaiah Mustafa

Have I Seen it Before: New release, opening weekend. And yet… It’s all looking a bit familiar.

Did I Like It: I’m sad to report that my ultimate answer will be: Only sort of.

And I’m left wondering why that is. IT - Chapter One (2017) worked so thoroughly, I’m wondering if King’s original story inherently runs out gas if left to its natural conclusion. The original television miniseries adaptation of IT (1990) may have been one of the cheaper Canadian productions ever committed to films, but Tim Curry’s original performance as Pennywise the clown inspired a generation of coulrophobia, but if we as children all watched the two-night event to the end, we may have been freed of our anxiety when we realized the monster is nothing more than a poorly animated spider.

And so, we’re left here at the end of this film with a… poorly animated spider.

The new cast only kind of works, and their stories are just a tad too disjointed to make them believable as the driving force for this movie. The film around them never gels together as the ensemble piece it should be. Their current situations are zipped through with as much speed as possible, which continues to limit their ability to be fully-formed people. It also adds a layer of—Beverly’s (Chastain) own situation not withstanding—skepticism about marriage that one would normally find in a Woody Allen movie.

Even the children, who were largely a revelation in the film, are a distracting presence in this film, for the most part. The CGI Eddie Kaspbrak (does Jack Dylan Grazer even appear in this film?) easily ranks as one of the more unsettling creatures in the film, which only somewhat damns the creature design through the rest of the film.

There are parts of the film that work. The opening scene depicting the gruesome death of Adrian Mellon (Xavier Dolan) is exactly the nauseating form of banal evil that Derry should be known for. It’s discomforting in every measurable way, but it’s a shame that the creeping evil at the very heart of the town is never really addressed beyond this opening scene.

Each scene with Pennywise (Bill Skarsgård) is a symphony of horror that leaves this reviewer clenching in all of the right places, but they are few and far between. The film should really get a failing grade for presenting itself as the killer clown movies to end all killer clown movies only occasionally features its killer clown. The projector scene in Chapter One has no peak-terror equivalent in this entry, and only makes the film approach levels of forgettability that rivals the characters jumbled childhood memories. 

Much praise has been given to Bill Hader for his performance as the adult Richie Tozier. I for one think that Isaiah Mustafa as the adult Mike Hanlon brought a vigilant intelligence to the role that was sorely missing from the script of Chapter One. They both deserve every amount of that approval, and I don’t even have a counterpoint to negate that praise. So, in an effort to get the end of this review to be on a happy, positive note (one of the more drilled-to-death jokes in the movie), I think Mustafa should play Batman now.