IMHO:
Criminal — Perhaps Kevin Costner's best movie.
Arrival — The greatest 'space aliens' movie — that barely features any aliens.
Hidden Figures — A terrific move featuring NASA's early days
The Accountant — Perhaps Ben Affleck's greatest movie.
Again, IMHO.
Juicy goodies below the fold.
Criminal
In a world of marvelous Kevin Costner movies, this is at the top of my list. The crude, unblemished, uncaring, unempathetic role he plays is so far removed from his usual 'dashing' roles (Waterworld, The Postman, Robin Hood, et al) that it's hard to put into words. It also stars Gary Oldman, Tommy Lee Jones and Ryan Reynolds, so it's no slouch in the stardom department.
Oh, and Gal Gidot plays a large role. You remember her, right?
Yes, that Gal Gidot.
The movie also has one of the most beautifully surreal endings I've ever seen. What makes it so different is that, after two hours of hard-bitten action, the final moments have this soft, uplifting song playing in the background. At that point, the only word is ethereal.
Here's a clip from the movie. I was tempted to use one of the brutal fight scenes, but since there might be young children and liberals in the audience, I didn't want to do any permanent mental damage. Here's a clip from the beginning that sets the tone.
Arrival
This movie has a wonderful premise. Twelve alien ships have arrived at various spots around the globe, including one in America. A master linguist is recruited to try to communicate with them. Their language is so guttural and dissonant from human speech that our heroine decides that the best way to communicate with them is through written words.
It's been hypothesized that the more one learns of a foreign language, the more one's mindset begins to change. In this case, the aliens can see into the future. So, as our heroine learns more and more of their written language, she suddenly has flashes of future events. The movie culminates with her seeing a futuristic event in real-time as she's talking with a Chinese general on the phone who's about to launch a nuclear strike on what's now been perceived as a hostile force, whereupon she grabs his attention in a way that no other human being possibly could and ends up saving the day.
Amy Adams stars ('Lois Lane' in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice), Jeremy Renner ('Hawkeye' in the Avengers movies) co-stars.
Here's the transitional moment.
Hidden Figures
My sincere thanks to BonafideView who suggested this terrific flick in the comments section of my last movie review. I've now seen it four times. I'll let him give the introduction:
My recommendation for a recent movie one shouldn't miss is Hidden Figures. Compelling stories based on real people illuminate the power of perseverance when individuals find and follow their passion and talents. Excellent acting by all with great chemistry among the three lead characters. Supporting characters are well drawn and acted; John Glenn charms all over again.
The movie harkens us back to the heady days of the Mercury space program. Space flight is literally being discovered on a day-to-day basis, mostly when it comes to the advanced mathematics required for a successful launch and re-entry.
Doing much of the calculating is a group of twenty black women. When suddenly the prestigious Space Task Group, which does the launch and re-entry data, needs a real brainiac, the pool of white women can't come up with someone with the required skills, whereupon one of our heroines is chosen. Another goes to the engineering department which is designing the actual space capsule, and the third eventually masters this new-fangled "computer" thing that's arrived.
This is taking place in a segregated 1961 where the colored women have to use their own bathroom, etc. But what makes the movie almost unique (by today's liberal all whites are racist meme) is the way the movie puts on display how many white Americans weren't particularly racist at the time, they were just going along with the culture mores of the day.
That librarian might not have had a racist bone in her body, but, still, here in 1961, that's just the way it is.
And then there are just those who were so wrapped up in their engineering or mathematical worlds that they were simply unaware of how much racism was going on around them. At one point, our heroine's boss, played by the remarkable Kevin Costner, is perplexed why she's away from her desk for such long periods. She explains that there's no bathroom for coloreds in the building, so she has to run to the nearest one a half-mile away. Costner explodes, grabs a large crow bar, goes over to the colored ladies bathroom and tear down the sign. He then turns to the crowd and says "There you have it. No more colored restrooms. No more white restrooms. Just plain old toilets. Go wherever you damn well please. Here at NASA, we all pee the same color."
As for the clip, there were three 'blackboard scenes' that stood out. Here are the two handing-over-the-chalk ones, separated by a brief take on what a classy guy John Glenn was.
The Accountant
One could call this 'the ultimate job of casting'. Affleck has been criticized for his 'wooden' acting in the past; that is, not showing a lot of emotion, so what role does he play here? An emotionless autistic man. Perfect! Like many autistic people, he does have a couple of higher brain functions that he excels at. In this case, accounting and gunplay.
A brilliant analyst for the Treasury Department has been brought in to nail the guy. She sleuths her way through the thin data and eventually finds him. Unfortunately, her boss is holding back a dire secret, so her quest is ultimately thwarted. In fact, she, too, relinquishes her grasp on him at the end in a wonderful surprise ending.
Playing superb supporting roles are Anna Kendrick, Cynthia Addai-Robinson, and Hollywood legend John Lithgow.
As a small side note, if you read my review of John Wick a few weeks ago, you'll remember that I made note of how Hollywood's latest vogue when it comes to gun play is the head shot. You'll see more of that here.
Movie suggestions in the comments are always welcome.
