Tom Hanks is Fantastic in "Sully"; Also Reviews for "The 9th Life of Louis Drax", "Morgan", and "Southside With You"

    The combination of Tom Hanks and Clint Eastwood is about as All-Star as you can get. Their new movie Sully opens this weekend and it's a powerful and realistic story that hearkens to the core of the human spirit. Based on the true account from January 2009, the story chronicles the investigation behind the Miracle on the Hudson. In a nutshell, Captain Chesley 'Sully' Sullenberger (Hanks), due to years of experience and intuition, was able to glide the plane he was piloting after it experiences dual-engine failure, safely across the waters of the Hudson River, saving the 155 souls on board. With his co-pilot Jeff Skiles (Aaron Eckhart) at his side, they overcame the nerves of the situation in order to do their job and return their passengers safely to the ground. Upon it's "landing", ferries, rescue boats, etc., raced to the aid of the passengers and crew as they braved the frigid January cold of New York out on the water. It's as touching as it is intense.

   From a narrative standpoint, the movie makes some really interesting choices. The film starts in the middle of the investigation. We see through flashbacks the event occur, but the majority of the time is spent showing the emotional aftermath for those involved, especially Sully. For example, Laura Linney plays Sully's wife, and as exceptional of an actress as she is, she's really given nothing to do. She watches TV and talks on the phone. I think that's really interesting. Movies have a way of embellishing details, especially when depicting true events, (this movie is not different), but in this case as in many others it is apparent that one of Eastwood's major goals was to depict realism. The 'human factor' plays an important part of the narrative, as well as a crucial part in the viewing of the movie. Most of the credit can be given to Tom Hanks, who never seems to phone it in. You believe every emotion, every little nuance of his performance. It's hard not to get wrapped up in the entirety of it. He's truly quite good.

   The only qualm I have with this movie is that it's very repetitive. I'm not familiar with all the details of the actual event, but after seeing this movie--which has a runtime of 95 minutes--I think it's a tad too long. If this movie was only an hour, it would still be just as powerful and meaningful in its overall message. There are some flashback scenes involving Sully's past that I thought felt a little out of place, but in reality that's the ONLY thing I felt the film had as a negative aspect. The narrative was engaging, the direction was well-done, the acting was superb, and the overall tone was relatable and very human. I highly recommend checking this movie out.

ALSO THIS WEEK:

   

    The 9th Life of Louis Drax was a movie I knew nothing about going into it. I hadn't seen a trailer for it (which knowing me is shocking) and I had an evening to kill and thought I'd check it out. Boy am I glad I did. Based on the novel, the movie follows a young psychologist named Alan Pascal (Jamie Dornan) who begins working with a young boy named Louis Drax (Aiden Longworth) who has suffered a near-fatal fall off a cliff, and finds himself drawn into a mystery that tests the boundaries of fantasy and reality. Louis is "accident prone", an aspect of his life that has a dark twist to it. He's an intelligent young man who seems to know more than he should. The film is centered around him and his relationship with his parents, played by Sarah Gadon and Aaron Paul. There is a level of mystery behind who these people are and as the story unfolds, their true aspects are brought to light in a shocking way.

   The movie is very much a family drama. However it takes on a fantastical point of view with Louis' out of body experiences while in his coma. For reasons revealed later on, while in his coma, his ethereal self meets with a sea monster who wants to know the story of his life. Louis doesn't fear this eerie creature, who looks like a crew member from Davy Jones' ship in Pirates of the Caribbean. Their conversations are intriguing and the existence of this creature is mysterious. The movie is very character-driven and the overall acting in this movie is really quite good. The movie is dark, disturbing, unsettling at times, but also warm-hearted, daring, and entertaining to boot. If you get a chance to see this movie, take it. I doubt you'll regret it.

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From director Luke Scott, son of the great filmmaker Ridley Scott, comes a fairly predictable horror/mystery called Morgan. In a nutshell, a group of scientists have devoted their lives for seven years, separated from the outside world, to the advancement of artificial intelligence. Their work is centered around an artificially created humanoid being named Morgan (Anya Taylor-Joy). When Morgan attacks one of the scientists, a corporate risk-management consultant named Lee Weathers (Kate Mara) must decide whether or not to terminate Morgan. Being a creature of heightened intelligence, Morgan obviously doesn't like this idea. So naturally, all hell breaks lose. The movie isn't really anything new. It reminded me of other horror/sci-fi films, particularly 2009's Splice. There are major sci-fi tropes used throughout the movie, and the major twist that is revealed is somewhat expected, but the movie is really entertaining and doesn't lack a moment of intrigue. The acting was okay, the direction was really well done, allowing for visual tension to build and suspense to ignite. If you're looking for a fun, sci-fi thriller, with a dash of horror, then check this movie out. If anything, it's a popcorn flick at best, and that's all it strives to be.

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Southside With You is the touching tale of Barack Obama and his now wife Michelle's first date. The fact that the movie is about our current president is the largest factor that sets this movie aside from any other rom-com. The movie, though based on true events, is fairly common in its narrative. Replace Barack and Michelle with two fictional characters and you'd have a generic love story. That aspect shouldn't be lost in the grand scheme of things. I'll keep it short, because in reality this movie didn't do anything for me that any other love story would do. It's funny, charming, narratively interesting, and from a movie standpoint it's a straight-forward cookie-cutter rom-com. How much of the story is true, I'm not sure. I'm sure the president wouldn't want unflattering depictions of he and is wife to be on display so I'm thinking it's pretty close to reality which, if you've seen the movie, makes for an interesting perspective of these two individuals. When you get down to it, the movie is a nice date night movie and nothing more, really. I enjoyed it for what it was, but it hasn't really stuck with me since.