Three films I just didn’t have time to formally review before my end of the year movie list.
Selfless…The movie should be better than it is—it’s about an aging billionaire (Ben Kingsley) who undergoes a surgery to take the body of a young man (Ryan Reynolds) with a company that is shadier than they first appear—but, then again, it stars Ryan Reynolds so maybe not. We never get a compelling read on the “villain” (Matthew Goode) or even a full picture of how he’s a villain exactly, and what starts out promising enough soon just devolves into a generic, sub-Jason Bourne thriller that’s numbingly dumb. The few early scenes with Kingsley and his good friend played by Victor Garber are the best part, these are two pros who know the material isn’t great but decide to bring their A-game anyway. Grade: C-
Time Out of Mind…So even though the letter grade for this isn’t much better than “Selfless” it is spiritually a much, much better movie since it’s going for a nobler goal. It follows Richard Gere as a homeless man who wanders around NYC for a few days, and although the movie feels too long, aimless, and narratively inert, I still found myself wishing I could recommend it. The cosmic joke: real New Yorkers walked right past Gere oblivious to who he was, which is a pretty great metaphor for the way we treat the homeless. Grade: C
The Hunting Ground…Sometimes “issue” documentaries are much harder to grade than regular movies because so much of it depends on your feelings about that issue. For example, “Hunting Ground” has been wildly debated on message boards between people who think campus rape is underreported and those who seem to think it’s largely exaggerated to gain some kind of “fame” for the victims. Without specifically knowing of campus rape, I can personally attest to how shabby the response is to crimes that happen on college campuses where violent assaults or attempted murders are hushed up, and school administrators are shockingly callous in their response. “THG” makes a compelling case that colleges—like any institution—are eager to protect their reputation above potential victims, and focuses on specific cases of student athletes and fraternities that especially seem immune from fallout. Grade: B