Hell or High Water

           By Emilio Frenk

           Director: David Mackenzie

Cast: Chris Pine, Ben Foster, Jeff Bridges, Gil Birmingham, Katy Mixon and Marin Ireland.

Rating: Excellent. 

 David Mackenzie, Director of “Perfect Sense” and “Hallam Foe” brings “Hell or High Water” and if the year was ending now I would put it as the best film of 2016.

The movie starts with Toby (Chris Pine) and Tanner (Ben Foster) two brothers who become thiefs in order to save their Texas Ranch.

This will draw the attention of Marcus Hamilton (Jeff Bridges) a Texas Ranger about to retire who with his partner Alberto Parker (Gil Birmingham) will be determined to catch the brothers and put a stop on all the thefts.

“Hell or High Water” has all the elements of a good thriller and a good drama which I consider it more due to the main thematic of two brothers who at any costs will do anything to protect what they have created, leading them to perform desperate moves. I consider this movie  to be  a criticism toward capitalism and financial crisis in general.

The script written for Taylor Sheridan, who wrote  last year´s “Sicario” did  another amazing job here, leading to a magnificent screenplay.

The direction of Mackenzie was superb and I was surprised by the acting of both Chris Pine and Ben Foster who gave so far the best performances of their careers, specially Pine who did a different approach from the movies we have seen him and took this performance to the next level. 

About Jeff Bridges is a guarantee to see him playing a good role and here was no different.

The confrontation between Bridges and Pine in  the climax of the film is one of the most engaging and surprising climaxes I´ve seen in a long time and remind me to the confrontation of Clint Eastwood and Kevin Costner in "A Perfect World" due to the tension and dialogue that happens during the scene. 

This movie I am sure it will be competing in next years´s awards in the Best Screenplay and it won´t be surprising  if Chris Pine lands  a Best Actor nomination for this film and Foster in the Supporting Category. 

“Hell or High Water” is the best drama/thriller of 2016 and so far the best movie of this year and I give it a huge recommendation and I can guarantee you that you will not be dissapointed when you watch this movie.

Hollyshorts 2016

By Emilio Frenk 

Yesterday it began the 12th edition of the Hollyshorts Film Festival in the TCL Chinese Theater in Los Angeles and being the first edition that I´ve been, I was amazed. 

For film lovers and specially for Independent Film this is a must see festival. I´ve never seen a festival that encourages young filmmakers to pursue their dreams. In the opening some of the shorts that I witnessed were Infini directed by Phillippe Casseus and  starring the talented Raquel Pomplun  and others that I was impressed were The Deal, a thriller directed by Daniel S. Kaminsky and Cuddle Party by Matthew Irving Epstein.

This filmmakers who broght their stories to life they represent the next generation of filmmakers and I believe that we are going to hear from them soon. 

The organization of the festival itself was brought on such a professional level and the shorts are really well made. 

As a both a filmmaker and critic  I do encourage you reader either if  you are a film lover or a filmmaker to see the work and stories that the filmmakers bring to life on the big screen in Hollyshorts. 

I strongly believe that this filmmakers do represent the next generation of young ones and we´ll be hearing from them pretty soon. 

The festival will be running until August the 20th be at the already mentioned Chinese Theater, 

As always feel free to leave any comments in this space and hope you enjoy the Festival as much as I did in the opening day. 

Suicide Squad

          By Emilio Frenk

          Director: David Ayer

          Cast: Will Smith, Jared Leto, Margot Robbie, Joel Kinnaman, Jai Courtney, Jay Hernandez and Viola  Davis. 

          Rating: Poor. 

         David Ayer, Director of“End of Watch” and “ Fury” brings an  adaption of DC Comics “Suicide Squad”, one  of the              most anticipated movies of the summer and one of the biggest dissapointments.

          The movie starts with Amanda Walker (Viola Davis) an Intelligence Operative who assembles a team of the most               dangerous criminals which are: Deadshot (Will Smith),Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), Boomerang (Jai Courtney),                 Killer Croc (Adewale Akinnouye-Agbaje), El Diablo (Jay Hernández) and Slipknot (Adam Beach) to stop a                             supernatural force that will cause some serious damege not only to Midway City but to the whole world.

          The team will be commanded by Coronel Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman) who is in charge of the operation as well                     making sure the criminals neither dissobey him or escape the mission. 

          In the aftermath of this plot is the psychotic killer The Joker (Jared Leto) who will try to rescue his girlfriend Harley             Quinn at any costs.

          The introduction of“Suicide Squad” was very interesting and personally I thought it was going to pay off;  the major           problem of the movie started when there was never a clear plot from the beginning and the storyline was all over             the place. 

In all the commercials and movie trailers of the movie you might think that it was the criminals who were going to stop The Joker who had an evil plan or something but no.

The subplot with Dr. June Moone/Enchantress played by Cara Delevigne doesn´t make any sense and it never works from the moment the character was introduced.

The same with Jared Leto, who personally I was very dissapointed of his portrayal of The Joker because he is one of the most talented actors in the industry and his portrayal of the psychotic villain never worked.

We have seen Ayer’s both on writing and directing and he gave a memorable movies like “End of Watch”, a fantastic screenplay with "Training Day" which both were  fascinating and engaging and he knows how to direct a movie but here was the opposite and the results are there and I couldn´t care less about the movie.

The things that I accept the movie works is that some of the action sequences  and the only performance I liked was of Margot Robbie´s portrayal of Harley Quinn which I was surprised since you buy the fact that she is insane.

“Suicide Squad” and “Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice” not only are the biggest dissapointments of this year but are the worst movies as well and the worst adaptions from DC Comics who in the last years have continued to do very poor adaptions to screen. 

Nine Lives

           By Emilio Frenk

Director: Barry Sonnenfeld

Cast: Kevin Spacey, Jennifer Gardner, Robbie Amell, Mark Consuelos, Malina Weissman, Jay Patterson and Christopher Walken.

Rating: Poor.

 Director Barry Sonnefeld, who is well known for the “Men in Black Trilogy” is back with “Nine Lives”, one the most idiotic comedies I´ve seen in a long time.

The movie centers in Tom Brand (Kevin Spacey) an ambitious business man who never has time for his wife Lara (Jennifer Gardner), his son David (Robbie Amell) who happens to work for him and daughter Rebecca (Malina Weismann). 

One day his daughter asks for a cat in her birthday which Tom reluctantly agrees and buys it from Felix Perkins (Christopher Walken) a cat salesman. 

Later in the day Tom gets into an accident and his soul  is trapped in the body of the cat and eventually  he's  being told that he has to spend more time with his family in order to be back or he will be trapped in the body of the cat forever.

There is nothing of “Nine Lives” that I liked. The direction of Sonnenfeld is totally ridicolous and the writing is very poor and dumb at the same time.

This plot has been seen many times and it reminds of the 1990 movie “Ghost Dad” with Bill Cosby which is as stupid as this one here.

From the opening you can tell the movie is going to be this bad and as well as having 5 writers working in this piece of trash. 

 Having A list actors like Spacey and Walken you would or at least I was expecting to see a better product besides of being both men Academy Award Winners you enjoy seeing them in the screen or television it didn´t happen here.

I consider “Nine Lives” so far the year´s worst movie and Sonnefeld who has directed good and entertaining movies like “Men in Black” and “Get Shorty” didn´t deliver the goods here and it´s such a waste of talent who appeared here. 

Little Men

By Emilio Frenk

Director: Ira Sachs

Cast: Greg Kinnear, Jennifer Ehle, Paulina García, Michael Barbieri, Theo Taplitz and Alfred Molina.

Rating: Excellent. 

Ira Sachs, Director of “Love is Strange”  is back with “Little Men” and is one of the best films of the year.

 Like of most of Sachs movies, it takes place in New York and it centers on Brian Jardine (Greg Kinnear) a theater actor who finds out through his son Jake played wonderfully by Theo Taplitz that his father passed away.

Now the family moves to the appartment that Brian inherit in Brooklyn and   they will meet Leonor (Paulina García) a woman who owns a dress shop and his son Tony (Michael Barbieri).

The moment that Jake and Tony meet they form a strong friendship, making them inseparable and also making Jake to be less shy and quiet  which is the opposite of Tony who happens to be the more flamboyant.

The friendship will be tested due to the raise of the lease that Brian is doing of the shop since Leonor was the one who paid Brian´s father.

Leonor now will be in the predicament of either keep the shop or they will have to move making the boys to compromise their friendship.

What I love of Ira Sachs movies is the fact that he gets deep in the characters and we saw this in “Love is Strange” and now we see it here. He can see the most vulnerable side of the characters and he does it beutifully.

Again Sachs joined forces with Co-Writer Mauricio Zacharias who wrote “Love is Strange” and it´s such a privilege watching this type of films which I describe true and moving.

 Remember the name of Theo Taplitz. I describe him as a huge promise in film and gives a remarkable performance here. This kid has a huge future and I hope we can see him in more films.

 Seeing Greg Kinnear is such a delight and he played Brian in a huge level. It´s not the firts time he portrays this type of character who have huge inner conflict and Kinnear takes it to the edge.

The music from the film and the story are engaging from the minute it starts to the end. 

 Before watching “Little Men” I encourage to watch “Love is Strange” since you will find things that have some resemblance with both films.

“Little Men” is considered one of the years best films and I highly recommend it for both the direction of Ira Sachs, The Script and The Performances which are touching. 

Jason Bourne

          By Emilio Frenk

           Director: Paul Greengras

           Cast: Matt Damon, Tommy Lee Jones, Riz Ahmed, Julia Stiles, Vincent Cassel and Alicia Vikander.

           Rating: Good

Nine Years after the events of “The Bourne Ultimatum”, Jason Bourne is back with this installment of the franchise and it delivers.

The Former Assasin Jason Bourne is now isolated and involved in fight rings in Greece. Everything changes   when Nicky Parsons (Julia Stiles) reaches  Bourne in order to give him more information about his recruitment into the Treadstone Program (Black Ops Program for the CIA).

 Again Jason Bourne is in the eye of the CIA and his director Robert Dewey (Tommy Lee Jones) will be willing to stop him even  if it means to kill  him.

Bourne’s last resource is The Head of Cyberops division Heather Lee (Alicia Vikander) who is the only one who believes him and will help him exposed the Tredstone program once and for all.

The main thing that I liked of “Jason Bourne” is that still keeps the spirit and essence of the previous films, which  not only has the explosions and the spectacular action sequences but the script and story were real and didn´t loose the essence of the series.

The car chases specially the one that happens in the climax of the film in Las Vegas, it´s so well choreographed and so well shot that it reminds me to all the car chasing sequences from movies like “Bullit”, “The French Connection” and of course the car chase sequence in Moscow from “The Bourne Supremacy”.

There are some things in terms of Script which it could been better and not so long when they involve the character Aaron Kalloor (Riz Ahmed) who plays a young tech entrepreneur; the introduction of the character was really interesting but when it got involved too much it was not that interesting.

Even though with those details the movie works and Paul Greengrass he has proven to be one of the best filmmakers of the action genre in the last decade. Not only he knows how to direct a film but he takes seriously the narrative that involves the story and the movie works at all leves.

“Jason Bourne” is pure excitement; it´s full of thrills and it will engage you in your seat the whole movie.

 I hope you enjoy it as much as I did and of course I give it a huge recommendation.

Bad Moms

          By Emilio Frenk

Directors: Jon Lucas and Scott Moore

Cast: Mila Kunis, Kathryn Hahn, Kristen Bell, Annie Mumolo, Jada Pinkett Smith, Jay Hernandez, Oona Laurence, Emjay Anthony, David Walton, Wendell Pierce and Christina Applegate.

Rating: Good. 

The writers from “The Hangover Trilogy” Jon Lucas (making his directorial debut) and Scott Moore bring another comedy with “Bad Moms” and I have to say that I was really surprised.

The story focuses on Amy (Mila Kunis) a mother who works too hard for her two children and for her husband Mike (David Walton) who is considered a 3rd child.

But everything will change when Amy gets tired of being the “good mother” and in a school´s PTA Meeting she will rebel herself making the PTA leader Gwendolyn (Christina Applegate) and her friends Stacy (Jada Pinkett Smith) and Vicky (Annie Mumolo) making them mad and therefore declaring war on Amy.

Later Amy will encounter with Carla (Kathryn Hahn) and Kiki (Kristen Bell) two mothers who are in the same situation as Amy and   under appreicated join forces, leading them  to  become best friends and eventually they will support Amy to be the next PTA Leader making Gwendolyn even  more furious towards the three women.

What I really liked of “Bad Moms” is that is movie that makes you feel good, even though the title is not that attractive but the script and story are sweet and has a lot of heart.

Kathryn Hahn is so far the best comedy actresses  and the chemistry with Kunis and Bell works at all levels.

Christina Applegate plays a wonderful villain very rare to see her in this type of role but she really delivers and it could have a resemblance with Cruella de Vil.

Yes it is full by moments that can be gross and all of the women are loud mouth but you will get very good kicks of it.

“Bad Moms” is indeed one of the surprises in comedy of this year and I haven´t laugh so hard since I saw “Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising” which by far is the best comedy movie of 2016.

I hope you have a very good time with “Bad Moms” and of course I give it a huge recommendation, making it one of the funniest movies of the summer.

Nerve

          By Emilio Frenk

Directors: Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman

Cast: Emma Roberts, Dave Franco, Emily Meade, Miles Heizer, Kimiko Glenn, Samira Wiley and Juliette Lewis. 

Rating: Average. 

This summer has been well know for thrillers like “The Conjuring 2” and “Lights Out”. Now it comes “Nerve”, a movie that involves the cause and effect of social media this days and it was a huge dissapointement.

The movie starts with “Vee” (Emma Roberts) a high school girl who is invited by  her best frend Sydney  played by Emily Meade to play “Nerve”.

You’re asking yourself What is Nerve? The answer it´s a game where you are either a player or a watcher and you take dares for money and advance to rounds until there is a winner.

Vee agrees to play the game and gets inmersed of playing this truth or dare games. In one of the the dares he meets Ian (Dave Franco) another player who like Vee is trying hard to advance to the next round.

After Vee gets more involved in the game, she will then realize the secrets of the game and she begins to be manipulated. Now either she will keep playing or her life and the others that surround her will be at risk as well.

The movie´s first act is really interesting and begin to engage me but as the movie advanced alienated in me and in a certain way I felt disgusted due to the stupid obsession that the movie manages.

One of things I admit of “Nerve” is that the premise was really interesting, doing a huge criticsm  how people have been using social media in this days. But neither  the execution and the script don´t work.

Dave Franco, like his brother James is a really talented actor and so as Emma Roberts who we have seen in movies like “We´re the Millers” and “American Horror Story” delivering very good performances. But this was not the case here and there performances at some point stopped being real.The dialogue on the script was so on the nose and preposterous that it stopped being believable.

The direction by Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman who both made the 2010 thriller “Catfish” and it was a very good thriller and scared audiences. Here the result is totally the opposite and it didn´t work. 

 The execution was very poor and is the main reason why I cannot recommend this film. 

Star Trek Beyond

By Emilio Frenk

Director: Justin Lin

Cast: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban, Zoe Saldana, Simon Pegg, John Cho, Anton Yelchin, Sofia Boutella and Idris Elba.

Rating: Good. 

Captain James T. Kirk,  Commander Spock and the crew of the USS Enterprise are back again in the third installment of the series “Star Trek Beyond” only this ocassion J.J. Abrams is Producing and Justin Lin who is well known for directing movies such as Fast  and Furious, Fast 5 and 6 directed this installment.

 Captain James T Kirk, played for the third time by Chris Pine and his crew also led by Commander Spock (Zachary Quinto) will be in a mission, where Kalara, a survivor asks for help in order to find her ship that got stranded in a nebula.

The fleet agrees to help her but just when are going into the nebula, an army led by Krall (Idris Elba) attacks the Enterprise causing the ship to crash impacting to a distant planet.

 Now Captain Kirk and company must figure out a way to stop Krall before it´s too late and it will be the end for The Federation and for the whole civilization.

Star Trek Beyond besides being pure entartainment it does engage you from the beginning to the end, specially if you are a big Star Trek fan.

One of the differences that this movie has previous to the other two is that has more comedic elements since Simon Pegg was one of the writers of this installment. You will notice that has many elements of Pegg´s humour in this one.

The action sequences are so well made an engaging that this movie entertains from beginning to end. Also the use of the music and songs like “Sabotage” from the Beastie Boys they do work. 

The story is real and the directing is sharp in all the extention. There are elements that were not needed in my opinion and the dialogue was cheesy but it didn´t bother me and still I was engaged.

 I recommend this movie to see it IMAX if you have a chance since you will enjoy more the visuals of it.

J.J. Abrams has proved once more that he is one of the most influential filmmakers in the Sci-Fi genre and here it was no different. Justin Lin proved also that he can  direct an action movie without making it fake.

I still say that “Star Trek: Into the Darkness” is the best movie so far of the installment but this indeed delivers.

 As you know this represented one of the last films that we will be seeing Anton Yelchin, who died tragically this year and Leonard Nimoy who played Commander Spock in the show died when the movie was on the phase of pre production and the movie is dedicated to both of them.

Star Trek Beyond is one of the best movies of this summer and hope you enjoy it as much as I did. 

Lights Out

By Emilio Frenk

Director: David F. Sandberg

Cast: Teresa Palmer, Gabriel Bateman, Alexander DiPersia, Alicia Vela-Bailey, Billy Burke and Maria Bello.

Rating: Excellent. 

The acclaimed director from “ The Conjuring” James Wan, produces “Lights Out”  and is one of the best horror films I have seen in a while.

Based on the 2013 Short Film of the same name, the story focuses in Martin (Gabriel Bateman) a young boy who is disturbed by a supernatural spirit once he strikes the lights out causing him not to  sleep.

He asks for her sister Rebecca for help (Teresa Palmer) who suffered a similar encounter when she was a child and eventually will experience it again.

Now Rebecca wants to seek the truth about the nature of the problem and finds out that this spirit´s name is Diana (Alicia Vela-Bailey) who has a huge connection with Rebecca’s mother Sophie (Maria Bello).

Now both Rebecca and Martin have to confront their mother in order to stop her connection with Diana before it ends with the family.

What I loved of “Lights Out” was the fact that David Sandberg used all the psycological elements in a very smart way; this element has been lost lately in this genre and has been more focused on blood and guts, causing a low interest in the horror genre.

The Script and Direction was smart and engaging. This movie and “It Follows” directed by David Robert Mitchell which was released last year are the best movies on the horror genre I´ve seen in a long time.

 I have to say that “Lights Out” I put it on the same caliber as movies like “The Shining” and “The Exorcist” which are cult classics and scared audiences back in the day  and still does. 

This movie has all the elements of a good horror movie and I give “Lights Out” a huge recommendation and one the biggest surprises of this year. 

Café Society

By Emilio Frenk

Cast: Jesse Eisenberg, Steve Carrell, Kristen Stewart, Corey Stoll, Jeannie Berlin, Parker Posey, Ken Stott and Blake Lively.

Rating: Excellent

Woody Allen is back again at the big screen, which has been a common habit  and he does it with “Café Society” and I have to say that this is one of the best of movies of this year.

 Set in the early days of Hollywood, The story centers in Bobby (Jesse Eisenberg) a young native from New York who moves to Los Angeles determined to make a big break in the movie industry.

He goes to his Uncle Phil Stern (Steve Carrell) a powerful agent who ends up helping him which will lead to meet with his Secretary Veronica “Vonnie” (Kristen Stewart) and immediately there is a connection between them leading to a strong romance.

 The major conflict happens when Bobby finds out that Vonnie had and still has an affair with his Uncle.

This move makes him to go back to New York and forget about the movie industry and be involved in the night club world and partners with his thug brother Ben played brilliantly by Corey Stoll from the show “House of Cards” and forgetting once and for all the sharade of the movie industry.

 Like in most of Woody Allen movies there is always the Love Traingle Conflict and here is no different. That is why it makes him one of the most influential filmmakers and no one does it better than him.

One of things that I loved about “Café Society” was how Allen told the world of the movie industry and how was it told back in the early days and he does it beautifully and it works at every single level.

The performances he got from the cast specially from Kristen Stewart who I have to say that I didn´t have any expectations, she did a really good job and gave one remarkable perfomance and perhaps the best of her career so far.

I´ve always stated that Woody Allen is a unique  storyteller and he did a fantastic film after his previous films “Irracional Man” and “Magic in the Moon Light” were a huge dissapointment. This is the Woody Allen most fans  love to see and he is back on the game.

 Without a doubt this movie can nail a few Academy Award Nominations next year, specially in the “Best Original Screenplay” Category.

 I give “Café Society” a huge recommendation and for Woody Allen fans you will not be dissapointed with this one. I guarantee you that.