Pete's Dragon

Writer/Director David Lowery’s Pete’s Dragon is an absolutely wonderful family adventure film.

  

Pete (Oakes Fegley) is orphaned in the wilderness at the age of 5, when his parents die in a car accident, and is nurtured by a big green dragon he names Elliott.

Six years later, when illegal loggers move into the area, he is found by a forest ranger (Dallas Bryce Howard) and befriends her young daughter Natalie (Oona Lawrence). 

Unfortunately, Pete and Elliot’s lair is discovered by the ranger’s greedy brother-in-law (Karl Urban) and the dragon’s life is endangered.

Pete and Oona have to work with her grandfather (Robert Redford) to save him.

The action is thrilling and the interplay of Pete, Elliott and the ranger’s family is sometimes tear-jerking. 

If you want to have a great time at the movies, see Pete’s Dragon.  I give it a 4.7 out of 5.

Florence Foster Jenkins

Director Stephen Frears’ Florence Foster Jenkins is a well-made and very well-acted, but sad story that was a bit cringe-creating, as well.

Florence was married at age 18 and got syphilis from her husband on their wedding night.  On his and his father’s deaths, she inherited a fortune and went on to become a patroness of the musical arts and society icon.  

 

She fancied herself a singer and, whether tone deaf as a result of her disease or just not caring, performed operatic songs in public.  Her second husband fostered her whims and dreams even when, in her mid-70s, she decided she wanted to perform in Carnegie Hall.

While she achieved her goals, her audiences primarily thought her performing was a comedic mockery of opera because her voice was so bad.  (In a sense, she was like the Trump of her day.)

Meryl Streep, who has a great voice, had to sing badly in this role and Hugh Grant does a great job of being the solicitous husband.

However, I couldn’t help wondering why this film was made and, if it weren’t for the secondary performers such as Rebecca Ferguson as the husband’s lover, Nina Arianda as the unruly wife of a man paid to watch Florence’s performances and, most notably,

Simon Helberg as Florence’s pianist, the film would have been a flat bore.

As it is, I give Florence Foster Jenkins a 3.6 out of 5.

Suicide Squad

Writer/Director David Ayer’s Suicide Squad is a wild ride in the vein of The Dirty Dozen, although, in this version, the dirty half dozen team is composed of meta-humans with extraordinary powers, plus a woman possessed by an evil witch, who wants to take over the world.

The team is excellent, composed of Will Smith as Deadshot, an assassin who never misses, Margot Robbie as Harlie Quinn, the crazy girlfriend of The Joker (Jared Leto), Jai Courtney as Boomerang, Ezra Miller as The Flash, Adewale Akinnouye-Agbaje as Croc and Jay Hernandez as fire-hands Diablo.  The witch Enchantress is well played by Cara Delevingne.

 

The Lee Marvin role is played by Viola Davis, who convinces the powers-that-be to let her use these reprobates as a team to fight aliens such as Superman, who might not be friendly to humanity.   

When the Enchantress escapes, the team is brought into service, albeit reluctantly.

Suicide Squad is definitely a guy-flic with action galore, all well-done and fun.

Margot Robbie is the standout performer, earning Suicide Squad a 4 out of 5.