As summer unfolds we are typically rewarded with better movies. Three of the 26 reviews below earn my top score, a “high-5”, a 5-finger rating. Sprinkled in are a few duds that feature worse storytelling than Ryan Lochte’s fable to the Brazilian police.
Below are 26 film reviews from July and August, each summarized in a single sentence. Films are rated on a scale from 0 (“The Dreaded Fist of Badness”) up to the “high 5.” High-fivers are outstanding films you do not want to miss. Films rated two or below are not worth paying to see, a three-rating is professional entertainment, and four fingers are excellent movies most will thoroughly enjoy.
The three fives mentioned below are among the year’s very best films — absolutely terrific movies from totally different genres — and all are well worth a trip to the theater.
As always, feel free to let me know if I’ve got them right or wrong. When it comes to movie reviews, everyone’s opinion is perfect.
Here we go:
Summer Films: 26 Reviews rated from zero to five fingers
- Central Intelligence – 3 fingers. The comedic chemistry of The Rock and Kevin Hart will make you laugh out loud, and the likeable pair get an able assist from ruthless CIA boss Amy Ryan in this buddy comedy about high school friends who reunite twenty years after graduation to help foil a sinister plot and save the world—and still manage to make it home in time to attend their class reunion.
- Our Kind of Traitor – 3 fingers. Fine work by Stellan Skarsgard and Ewan McGregor highlight this otherwise so-so John Le Carre espionage thriller about a Russian mafia kingpin who buys off British officials to set up a bank in London and launder billions out of Moscow.
- Swiss Army Man – 4 fingers. Until the film’s final scene, there are only two actors in the film—Paul Dano and Daniel Radcliffe—and they team together to pull off a one of a kind premise with flawless execution in this mind-twisting drama about a suicidal young man who finds a corpse with special powers washed up on the beach.
- The Shallows – 3 fingers. Fans of screen dominating bikini close-ups of Blake Lively shot from a thousand different angles will find this Mexican beach drama about Jaws’ nephew taking up residence in the beachfront shallows so he can munch on surfers will find this otherwise forgettable film Oscar-worthy.
- DePalma – 4 fingers. Interesting self-describing documentary shares the interesting arc of dramatic film director Brian DePalma’s up-and-down career, including finding Robert DeNiro—and others—and the making of some of his classic American dramas.
- The Secret World of Pets – 4 fingers. This well made and entertaining animated family film is reminiscent story-wise of “Babe in the City,” but is a lot of fun for moviegoers of all ages.
- Captain Fantastic – 4 fingers. Viggo Mortensen is absolutely outstanding in this thought provoking drama about a survivalist’s odd approach to raising and homeschooling six children in the wilderness, and the consequences that arise when tragedy strikes.
- The Infiltrator – 2 fingers. This disappointing effort about the real world government sting that nailed drug kingpin Pablo Escobar and 100 other bad guys and bankers never gets any emotional traction, which wastes the great work of supporting actress Diane Kruger as an undercover agent assigned to play fiancée to lead actor Bryan Cranston’s money laundering front man.
- The Innocents – 4 fingers. When World War II Russian and German soldiers forcefully treat a strict religious nunnery as a bordello for unprotected sex, a slew of Polish nuns find themselves emotionally devastated and in the family way—which sets up one of the truly great third acts of any film in the past several years.
- Ghostbusters – 3 fingers. Kate McKinnon and nostalgic homage cameos save this respectful remake of the monster 1984 comedy, which entertains at times but falls flat at others, and fails to capture any of the original comedy classic’s imaginative magic.
- Don’t Think Twice – 4 fingers. Writer/director/comedian Mike Birbiglia’s outstanding, thought-provoking riff on the New York improv scene centers upon a tight bunch of close friends and performers suddenly forced to deal with a big break for one but not the others, as well as the shuttering of their affordable playhouse.
- Cafe Society — 4 fingers. Kristen Stewart steals Woody Allen’s Hollywood glory days glamour film, a heavily Jewish story about a young man (Jesse Eisenberg) who bounces from New York to Los Angeles in search of a life, wife, and transition to adulthood.
- Jason Bourne – 3 fingers. A strong cast headlined by Matt Damon is underutilized while car crashes and computer keystroking ad nauseum combine with choppy editing to dilute what could have been, and should have been, a much better film.
- Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie – 2 fingers. Films whose trailers outshine the movie are always a disappointment, and this British buddy comedy about two older women determined to life the high life despite being broke suffers from a series of shortcomings and thoroughly disappoints.
- Anthropoid – 4 fingers. This year’s “Hitler was bad” movie is a good one, a well-made drama based a true story about a small band of Czech resistance fighters in Prague who plot to take out Hitler’s third in command: the nearly untouchable Nazi tyrant Reinhard Heydrich, one of the world’s most murderous, coldblooded leaders.
- Indignation – 5 fingers. One of the year’s best films, this finely crafted drama is set on a small college campus in 1951 Ohio and capitalizes on great chemistry and superb performances between young stars Logan Lerman and Sarah Gadon to deliver a smart drama about multiple layers of social stress during the Korean War.
- Lo and Behold: Reveries on a Connected World – 3 fingers. German writer/director Werner Herzog’s documentary about technology and the pluses and minuses of the Internet is too ambitious and unfocused to be riveting cinema, but will provide the curious viewer some interesting things to think about.
- Florence Foster-Jenkins – 4 fingers. Watching this clever adult comedy about a New York socialite who fancied herself a singer during the misery of the war in 1944, I could not help but think there is only one actress in the world who could pull it off—the remarkable Meryl Streep—and it will come as no surprise when she earns her record 20th Oscar nomination in January.
- War Dogs – 3 fingers. Miles Teller and Jonah Hill are excellent as 20-something partners who manage to win a $300 million bid for military weapons to arm Afghanistan but find themselves way over their heads when it comes to dealing with the underbelly of arms dealing foreigners.
- Hell or High Water – 5 fingers. Easily one of the summer’s best movies, an interesting story, excellent cast, and skilled filmmaking make this picture about a pair of brothers with little to lose who exact a bit of family revenge on a heartless small town Texas bank is a real treat for fans of smart cinema.
- Hunt for the Wilderpeople – 4 fingers. Writer/director Taika Waititi’s smart adaptation of Barry Crump’s popular New Zealand novella Wild Pork and Watercress about a mismatched boy and old curmudgeon who go on a bit of an extended walkabout in the bush is smart, well-paced, and a whole lot of fun.
- Bad Moms – 3 fingers, but just barely. This male-written and directed 30-something raunchy female buddy comedy is saved by protagonist mom Mila Kunis and antagonist bitch-mom Christina Applegate, but otherwise struggles to be much more than a good idea sloppily executed.
- Equity – 3 fingers. A women-centric Wall Street drama told and crafted from a female perspective, this big money who-screws-who ensemble drama lacks star power and has its ups and downs, but does a really nice job with its Act Three climax by neatly weaving together multiple story threads.
- Suicide Squad – 2 fingers. This forgettable comic book film about a group of super bad guys put together to wide out a mysterious global threat stars an overload of computer graphics, lots of noise and explosions, gruesome gore, more noise, more explosions, an amateur lead actor who is dreadful as the antagonist, and occasional helpful vignettes from Margot Robbie and Will Smith.
- Don’t Breathe – 5 fingers. Easily one of the year’s finest dark suspense films, this terrific “edge of the seat” thriller centers around three bored Detroiters who plot a blind man’s home invasion to scare up enough easy cash to move out of town—but suddenly find themselves in trouble far deeper than they imagined.
- Hands of Stone – 2 fingers. Boxing is cinema’s best sport but this story of Panamanian street urchin Roberto Duran’s rise to legend is told from trainer Ray Arcel’s point of view—played nicely by Robert DeNiro—and suffers from too many creative potholes to make it a compelling film worth paying to see.
Thanks for reading and for supporting your local cinema. The movies can take us anywhere. All we have to do is let them.
Best always,
