Film Reviews from Two Guys in the Dark: 2017

Friday, December 22, 2017

Star Wars: The Last Jedi and The Disaster Artist

“Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!”

(attributed to Rear Admiral David Farragut Rear Admiral David Farragut,

said in some form during the brutal 1864 Civil War Battle of Mobile Bay, Alabama)

Originally, it seemed year-end-logistics (including events surrounding my age-significant-70^th birthday) would prevent me from getting any more Two Guys in the Dark postings done in 2017 so I was simply using some spare time to prepare Short Takes comments on various screenings as opportunities allowed, assuming I’d offer a cluster of briefer remarks than usual in early January. However, a combination of writing more than I intended (surprised?) and more free time than anticipated gives me the chance to get these 2 reviews posted now, although eschewing my standard Executive Summary, What Happens, So What?, Bottom Line Final Comments structure this time but with Spoiler Alerts still in place. So, if you have the time during this busy holiday season (while counting the cash you’re supposed to save when filing your taxes next year, thanks to the D.C. oligarchs) please have a look at these reviews; I’ll be back soon with commentary on some likely Oscar contenders, once I’ve had a chance to watch them.

Reviews by Ken Burke

Star Wars: The Last Jedi (Rian Johnson)

The decades-old Star Wars narrative continues, with parallel plot crises straight from The Empire Strikes Back (but set some 30 years later) as emerging-Jedi Rey seeks Luke Skywalker's help against the First Order (the new, just-as-vicious Empire) but he refuses even as various members of the Resistance give their all to prevent total takeover by a new dictatorship.

Here’s the trailer: (Use the full screen button in the image’s lower right to enlarge it; activate that same button on the full screen’s lower right or your “esc” keyboard key to return to normal size.)

If you can abide plot spoilers read on, but as this blog’s intended for those who’ve seen the film—or want to save some bucks—to help any of you who’d like to learn more details yet avoid important plot-reveals I’ll identify such give-away sentences/sentence-clusters like so:

⇒The first and last words will be noted with arrows and red.⇐ OK, now continue on if you prefer.

Attempting to give brief commentary on something part of such a looming cultural presence as the Star Wars franchise may not be what you’d prefer (and it's certainly not characteristic of my usual rambling), but that’s my pattern for this posting so if you want more extensive commentary you can easily find it on the Internet, from those who’re satisfied with Episode VIII (93% positive reviews at Rotten Tomatoes, 86% average score at Metacritic [more details in the links far below]; attendance has been amazing, with $536.6 million in worldwide ticket sales [$261.8 million domestically {U.S.-Canada} second highest opening weekend ever, behind its predecessor, Star Wars: The Force Awakens {J.J. Abrams, 2015; review in our December 31, 2015 posting}] in just the 1^st week of release plus an A rating from CinemaScore audiences) and those who aren’t (56% audience score at RT*, even some negative comments from star Mark Hamill). With my imposed-analytical-limitation in mind, then, here goes my commentary: You’ve got to be willing to accept a lot of repetition in these movies, because the basic scenario of good constantly trying to overcome evil without getting into a lot of intricate plot detail simply leads to revisiting established (and audience-embraced) themes and locations (including obvious duplications from … A New Hope [George Lucas, 1977] to … Return of the Jedi [Richard Marquand, 1993] with crises involving Jabba the Hutt on Tatooine, the climatic destruction of a Death Star), so even though … Return … saw the beginning of the Empire's end, for all practical purposes its remnants still grew in the dark corners of this galaxy for 30 years until they’ve now been able to reassert themselves as the First Order,** bringing a drastic end to the New Republic with only Gen. Leia Organa Solo’s Resistance fighters (heirs to the previous Rebellion) left to provide a desperate attempt at bringing down the vicious, well-armed forces led by Supreme Leader Snoke (Andy Serkis) with able help from his increasingly-Dark Side-consumed apprentice, Kylo Ren (Adam Driver), still trying to rid himself of any love for his heroic parents, Leia and Han Solo (the later [Harrison Ford] Kylo mercilessly killed in … Awakens).

*Or, is this a legitimate number? Check out these HuffPost and Vox articles exploring the claim these negative responses are a sexist/ racist/angry-fanboy calculated effort to undermine the true public acceptance of this movie, just as other devious abuses of social media have impacted everything from Yelp! restaurant ratings to election campaigns in various countries in recent years.

**Even with my unabashed love for this franchise and its reaffirmation of The Beatles’ "All You Need Is Love"-solution to human problems (although hand-to-hand-combat-skills with a lightsaber are quite useful as well), I can’t begin to claim knowledge of all the novels, comics, TV series, etc. that carried on the main story or offshoots between … Return … and … Force Awakens, but it’s clear some of that stuff’s non-canonical anyway as with books where Leia and Han have 3 kids, none of them Ben Solo deteriorating into Kylo Ren, so just follow whatever storylines appeal to you.

Meanwhile, emerging-Jedi Rey (Daisy Ridley) finally locates Luke Skywalker (Hamill) on the almost-uncharted, mostly-ocean planet of Ahch-To, but he refuses to participate in this latest war against the forces of uncompromising-evil, instead saying that the inherent hubris of his once-renowned-peacekeeper-order of galaxy-roaming-knights now justifies rejection of their continued existence.

This lengthy (152 min.) story works it way through many battle scenes; psychic connections between Rey and Kylo (him trying to pull her into the Dark Side, her trying to return him to the Light); Luke’s begrudging decision to give Rey some Jedi training* after R2-D2 shows him the long-ago “Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi; you’re my only hope” hologram; the emergence of new characters Finn (John Boyega), Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac), and the BB-8 robot, leading to mere-cameo-appearances by Chewbacca (Joonas Suotamo), C3-PO (Anthony Daniels), R2-D2 (Jimmy Vee), and other familiar faces from earlier episodes—as the new ones will carry the franchise in upcoming Episode IX (J.J. Abrams, scheduled for December 20, 2019) and beyond—along with a host of surprises: ⇒Luke admits his sense of self-importance almost led him to kill Ben Solo/Kylo Ren when he sensed how strong Snoke’s manipulation of the Dark Side had become in his nephew, after which Kylo killed the other acolytes—just as his grandfather, Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader, did years ago; Rey learns her long-lost-parents were simply rogue junk-dealers who sold her as a child with no regret; Kylo seems to come to his senses by killing Snoke but only in hopes Rey’ll join him in ruling the galaxy (sounds like the Emperor and Luke at the end of … Return …, but I told you this series breeds repetition); the short screen time of scoundrel codebreaker DJ (Benicio del Toro), but I’ll bet he’ll be back too; Vice-Admiral Amilyn Holdo (Laura Dern) sacrifices herself by shooting into light speed right through Snoke’s ship, destroying it while interrupting the struggle between Rey and Kylo with Luke’s lightsaber ripped apart in the process; Luke withstands the onslaught of Kylo’s forces (he’s now declared himself as new First Order Supreme Leader) before we realize it’s a holographic projection from across deep space that consumes Luke to the point of death, but his sacrifice allows the few remaining Resistance members to escape in the Millennium Falcon, after Rey demonstrates her emerging Jedi powers in a manner like Yoda’s command over objects (he makes a return too, as a ghost, fulfilling Luke’s intentions of bringing the old era of the Jedi to an end, using lightning to destroy their sacred-tree-temple with all the original scriptural writings.)⇐

*Here’s information about a reported-cut-scene of Luke’s third Jedi lesson with Rey, which simultaneously shows her the error of letting aggressive emotions cloud her responses to a crisis situation while confirming that she needs to be an active agent of justice, not a mind-scarred-hermit such as Luke has become, despairing over his unleashing the terrible Dark Side power of Kylo Ren.

You could easily say this movie’s a bit too long (with repeated battle scenes of an outnumbered Resistance force making some gains, buying some time, in their struggles against Snoke’s armies before being almost totally destroyed, all of which gets a bit too repetitious even for me—as well as too reminiscent of aspects of … Return of the Jedi with the fatal confrontation between an aged villain and younger Force-wielders [along with an intentionally-silly-casino-scene when Finn and Rose are searching for a master codebreaker—before they’re conveniently thrown into a cell with DJ—too obviously intended to evoke the always-mentioned-appeal of the bar scene in … A New Hope]), but a wealth of well-orchestrated, marvelously-visualized combat encounters are what devoted fans of the franchise want (along with occasional doses of humor, which do work their way nicely into this script), plus the reappearance of a host of familiar characters, although now enhanced by the enlarged presence of the new protagonists including mechanic-turned-brave-pilot Rose Tico (Kelly Marie Tran). Overall, for those of us invested over our variously-ranging-lifetimes in this ongoing storyline there’s mostly a lot to like here (despite the naysayers' opinions, legitimate or otherwise), with a useful evolution of the Jedi mythology, as explored in this essay which notes Rey now aware of the potential danger of assuming a mantle of infallibility that unknowingly haunted previous generations of these knights, especially the powerful Skywalkers with their decisions to determine destiny for others in their families (Padmé Amidala for Anakin; later, Ben Solo for Luke).

My standard use of a review-closing Musical Metaphor’s a bit more obscure here than usual, but I find my choice to be fitting for Carrie Fisher’s final appearance in a Star Wars story, especially given the movie’s dedicated to our now-departed “Princess” in the end credits; this song, Paul Simon’s “Hearts and Bones” (from the 1983 album of the same name), at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNscVpaBjj8 was written about ex-wife Fisher and the closing “arc of a love affair” (even though the song came before they married in 1983, soon divorced in 1984), maybe as a premonition of a doomed relationship neither could avoid speeding headlong into anyway because of “Love like lightning shaking ‘till it moans [… even if it ends up in] specua[tion about] who had been damaged the most.” ⇒Now that the chief characters from the beloved Star Wars “middle trilogy” are all dead either on-screen (Obi Wan Kenobi, Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Darth Vader) or off-screen (Sir Alec Guinness’ Kenobi, Fisher’s Princess/General Leia, although she’ll now have to be somehow written out of Chapter IX)⇐ we’ll just have to wistfully remember all of them through theatrical/video re-screenings where “Easy time will determine if these consolations Will be their reward The arc of a love affair Waiting to be restored,” just as the memories of gallant heroes fighting for a just cause will, in fact, be the inspiration that stirs new warriors Rey, Finn, Poe, and Rose—along with yet-unknown-rebels (shown by the final shot of a little guy using The Force to grab his broomstick)—to once again overthrow the evil forces of tyranny (with my hopes some of their contemporary brethren will arrive in Washington, D.C. after the 2018 elections to accomplish a similar, needed cleansing for American politics from the horrors of Donald Trump and his despicable tax-theft-bandits), so the galactic Republic of yore and its people (along with ours in the 21^st century) will rise once more, manifesting the emerging strength of “Their hearts and their bones And they won’t come undone.”

The Disaster Artist (James Franco)

Based on the actual "so-bad-it’s-good" The Room, this dramatization of a midnight-screening-cult-favorite attempts to give some sympathetic understanding to the real-life screenwriter/director/star (and necessary-wealthy-financier, of unknown means) Tommy Wiseau, who fancied himself a cinematic auteur even though his vision seemed absurd to everyone else.

Here's the trailer:

Before reading any further, I'll ask you to refer to the plot spoilers warning far above.

I have to admit I never saw The Room (Tommy Wiseau, 2003) because the reviews were so bad upon initial release, then I still didn’t track it down after it became a cult favorite with a solid shelf-life in midnight screenings.* Based on the comments by director/star James Franco (portraying Wiseau)—noted in the 2^nd entry connected to ... Artist in the Related Links section of this posting below—it’s clear Franco and those associated with this film have deep respect for Wiseau’s devotion to his own project, even though they all admit it’s a mess on screen, enjoyable only because every element of The Room is such a travesty of cinematic intentions (at least in terms of script and acting; without watching the original I can’t say if lighting, editing, etc. are equally bad or are reasonably competent within the larger atrocity that’s become embraced as the successor, as worst cinematic atrocity ever, to Ed Wood’s equally-terrible Plan 9 from Outer Space [1959], itself the subject of another [but in my opinion, superior] sincere-in-original-intention-manifestation of bad filmmaking, Ed Wood [Tim Burton, 1994]). What’s absolutely riveting about The Disaster Artist is James Franco’s mesmerizing depiction of self-absorbed (coolly wealthy) Wiseau, a performance already generating Best Actor buzz (nominations from the Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild**).

*But it’s now playing in various places and will have a 600-theater-showcase on January 10, 2018 if you’d care to seek it out in the several cities in which it will have an earlier-than-midnight-revival.

** See the Related Links section below for the Golden Globes full list; here’s the full SAG list.

Franco gives all of himself from his opening appearance in a 1998 San Francisco acting class (run by Jean Shelton [Melanie Griffith])—where he not only chews but fully devours the scenery as Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire—to the finale where, encouraged by close friend/co-star Greg Sestero (Dave Franco, James’ younger brother), he accepts Greg’s encouragement ⇒that the audience laughing hysterically at The Room’s premiere is showing Wiseau appreciation for his vision rather than ridiculing him (which I’m not convinced of, but they do give him an ovation when he comes on stage), allowing Tommy to feel justification for pursuing his oddball artistic vision.⇐

You don’t have to have seen The Room to fully appreciate what James Franco’s recreated here (you can see some side-by-side-comparisons, used in The Disaster Artist’s final credits to get a sense of the fidelity, though), to admire his devotion to what’s presented in The Room which in the … Artist seems to be a heartfelt-attempt to celebrate Wiseau’s dedicated-vision in his now-famous (notorious?) screen-debut, although the humor we find in the … Artist is still debatable (just as with Wiseau’s original) as being something to celebrate because it willingly violates so many norms of traditional cinematic narrative or because it’s just laughable in being so incompetent in all manners of conception and execution. (To my mind, in these comparison clips, even though Franco’s just overseeing an exquisite imitation of the mundane reality of the original movie, The Room, his version’s still superior, at least in terms of acting competence, which further shows the humor embedded in Wiseau’s version is simply based on ridicule, making it difficult for me to fully appreciate what J. Franco’s intended here in presenting the story of a man so obsessed with his own self-image, even though he can’t pass an audition to save his life, while his friend/fellow-actor Greg finds acceptance from top-agent Iris Burton [Sharon Stone] but equally lacks the talent to actually get hired, so their only salvation is to finance their own movie, which Tommy does—to the tune of a reported $6 million, even though no one yet seems to know where the actual guy gets his money, how old he is, if he’s really from New Orleans, or what inspires his [pseudo?] Eastern European accent). ⇒As this version of The Room goes forward to its premiere (which, as depicted, eventually becomes a “Springtime for Hitler”—from The Producers [Mel Brooks for the 1967 original comedy, then directed by Susan Stroman as a 2005 musical-adaptation]—type-ironic-success, but just on opening night for The Room) with a miserable $1,800 take in its only L.A. theater, held over at Tommy’s expense for 2 weeks to qualify for Oscar consideration (the height of uncomprehending myopia) we have to understand—despite the audience’s eventual embrace of Tommy—his success is based on perverse glee for his absurdity, a fine line between appreciation and condescension.⇐

The Disaster Artist has been lauded by critics (93% positive review at RT, 76% average score at MC), but with other, more-engaging-options available even after 3 weeks in release it’s generated only about $13 million at the domestic box-office (along with a paltry $2.7 million from international sales) so this is proving to be another cult-favorite of its own from the James Franco-Seth Rogan-Jonah Hill, etc.-“conglomerate” which has intrinsic value for their true-believers but may not be all that appealing to audiences outside the realm of such particular fandom (including those who adore The Room for its quirkiness but don’t constitute much of a critical mass [in the sense of importance, not reviewer-friendliness]). Honestly, I was in awe of J. Franco’s unhinged performance (as well as the competence of others in the cast, especially D. Franco and Rogan [as script supervisor/more-functional-director, Sandy Schklair], as well as cameos by stars such as Melanie Griffith, Zac Efron, Bryan Cranston, Judd Apatow, J.J. Abrams, Kevin Smith, and many more), but despite Franco’s honest attempt to evoke empathy for sincere-but-frightfully-untalented-Wiseau (courageous—if possibly incoherent—in allowing himself to be portrayed as such a mental-case in this fictionalization of his career accomplishment) I felt uncomfortably-bothered about laughing so much at the unrealized-idiocy of the lead character (despite the obvious distain most of his coworkers easily come to feel for him) and wondering what I’m gaining from The Disaster Artist I couldn’t get from just finally watching The Room itself. I’m highly impressed by the work of the elder Franco, but the film as a whole leaves me less engaged than the responses I found from most other critics.

As for a Musical Metaphor to give some closure to this review, I’m going a bit far afield again here, but the 1^st song under the final credits, "The Rhythm of the Night" (by Corona, from their 1993 album of the same name as the song) somewhat reminded me of the beat of “What Is Love?” (Haddaway, from another 1993 album simply called The Album [seems an appropriate match for The Room]), with this particular version at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFt7Br1VRVw taken from a Saturday Night Live skit’s use of this song with various performers such as the one here featuring Jim Carrey, Will Farrell, and Chris Kattan (a funny original idea mistakenly enlarged into a film, Night at the Roxbury [John Fortenberry, 1998—11% positive reviews on RT, even worse than The Room’s 26%]) as clueless guys rejected by most of the women they attempt to dance with, just as Tommy’s rejected by just about everyone in L.A. except Greg (even he gives up on his friend’s weirdness for a while), saying “I give you my love, but you don’t care So what is right and what is wrong? […] Baby don’t hurt me Don’t hurt me No more,” even as the initial responses to Tommy’s movie drive him out of the theatre until Greg convinces him he’s achieved his dream of a strong audience response, maybe even more so than such a great master as Hitchcock received. I’ll leave it to you as to whether the actual Tommy’s work (or this celebration of it) deserves such accolades, but Tommy does have a funny exchange with Franco as Wiseau in an oddball-post-credits-scene.

This last-minute-posting will definitely be all for me at Film Reviews from Two Guys in the Dark in 2017 so I’ll close by wishing you all Happy Holidays for whatever you may celebrate and a peaceful, prosperous 2018 (or whatever year you may celebrate). I’ll return to you again in a couple of weeks.

Related Links Which You Might Find Interesting:

We encourage you to visit the summary of Two Guys reviews for our past posts.* Overall notations for this blog—including Internet formatting craziness beyond our control—may be found at our Two Guys in the Dark homepage. If you’d like to Like us on Facebook please visit our Facebook page. We appreciate your support whenever and however you can offer it!

*A Google software glitch causes every Two Guys posting prior to August 26, 2016 to have an inaccurate (dead) link to this Summary page; from then forward, though, this link is accurate.

AND … at least until the Oscars for 2017’s releases have been awarded on Sunday, March 4, 2018 we’re also going to include reminders in each posting of very informative links where you can get updated tallies of which 2017 films have been nominated for and/or received various awards and which ones made various individual critic’s Top 10 lists. You may find the diversity among the various awards competitions and the various critics hard to reconcile at times—not to mention the often-significant-gap between critics’ choices and competitive-award-winners (which pales when compared to the even-more-noticeable-gap between specific award winners and big box-office-grosses you might want to monitor here)—but as that less-than-enthusiastic-patron-of-the-arts, Plato, noted in The Symposium (385-380 BC)—roughly translated, depending on how accurate you wish the actual quote to be—“Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder,” so your choices for success are as valid as any of these others, especially if you offer some rationale for your decisions (unlike many of the awards voters who simply fill out ballots, sometimes for films they’ve never seen).

To save you a little time scrolling through the “various awards” list above, here are the Golden Globe nominees for films and TV from 2017.

Here’s more information about Star Wars: The Last Jedi:

http://www.starwars.com/the-last-jedi/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSFPGhVOHIQ (14:52 extensive exploration of Easter Eggs, cameos, and references, with a general sense of support of the movie) and https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=Ddt0k3yU9Q8 (10:08, with 70 complaint questions about the details of the movie [illustrated with footage from a Star Wars video game]; methinks the questioner reveals his nerd credentials too much with the physics demands of his many challenges, all of which would likely lead to a more complicated—or boring—scenario if all his concerns were resolved, further proving my point that these Star Wars movies belong in the Fantasy genre where you just have to go with the flow, rather than even the Science-Fiction world where some rationale is usually attempted to explain the feasibility of hyperdrive movement at light speed [with no impact on the ship or its inhabitants]—yes, I put beings like Superman and Spiderman in the Fantasy realm also, despite their quasi-scientific-explanations of extraordinary abilities, but if you believe moving from a red sun to a yellow sun will give you x-ray vision or a bite from a radioactive spider will allow you to crawl up walls, then I’ve got some high-fire-danger-California-real-estate you might be interested in)

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/star_wars_the_last_jedi

http://www.metacritic.com/movie/star-wars-episode-viii---the-last-jedi?ref=hp

Here’s more information about The Disaster Artist:

http://disasterartist.movie/home/oh-hi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxIIfAhm1FI (45:35 jovial interview with director/actor James Franco and actors Dave Franco, Seth Rogen)

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_disaster_artist

http://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-disaster-artist

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If you’d rather contact Ken directly rather than leaving a comment here please use my new email at kenburke409@gmail.com. (But if you truly have too much time on your hands you might want to explore some even-longer-and-more-obtuse-than-my-film-reviews—if that even seems possible—academic articles about various cinematic topics at my website, https://kenburke.academia.edu, which could really give you something to talk to me about.)

By the way, if you’re ever at The Hotel California knock on my door—but you know what the check out policy is so be prepared to stay for awhile. Ken

P.S. Just to show that I haven’t fully flushed Texas out of my system here’s an alternative destination for you, Home in a Texas Bar, with Gary P. Nunn and Jerry Jeff Walker. But wherever the rest of my body may be my heart’s always with my longtime-companion, lover, and wife, Nina Kindblad, so here’s our favorite shared song—Neil Young’s "Harvest Moon"

—from the performance we saw at the Desert Trip concerts in Indio, CA on October 15, 2016 (as a full moon was rising over the stadium) because “I’m still in love with you,” my dearest, a never-changing-reality even as the moon waxes and wanes over the months/years to come.

OUR POSTINGS PROBABLY LOOK BEST ON THE MOST CURRENT VERSIONS OF MAC OS AND THE SAFARI WEB BROWSER (although Google Chrome usually is decent also); OTHERWISE, BE FOREWARNED THE LAYOUT MAY SEEM MESSY AT TIMES.

Finally, for the data-oriented among you, Google stats say over the past month (which they seem to measure from right now back 30 days) the total unique hits at this site were 8,498 (overall numbers continue to drop—was it something I said? Have the bribery checks gotten lost in the mail?—but at least the previous week’s info shows that of my 4 continents reached [counting the Asia portion of Russia] I’ve finally connected with South America again, so hello, Colombia!); below is a snapshot of where and by what means those responses have come from within the previous week:

Thursday, December 14, 2017

Darkest Hour and Short Takes on Wonder Wheel

“Never Surrender!” (… At Least Until the Last Fire on the Beach Burns Out)

Reviews by Ken Burke

Before we get started, I’ll note that Film Reviews from Two Guys in the Dark is now 6 years old, having begun with our first posting on Dec. 12, 2011; since then we’ve presented reviews of 636 films/movies (we’re precise with such terminology, focusing more on art for the former, entertainment for the latter), or I guess I should say that I (Ken, on the right in the accompanying photo [although I haven't cut my hair in 6 years either so it's now about 3 times as long as what you see here]) have written all those commentaries because my co-founder, Pat Craig, is still polishing his thoughts on the most current thing that he's seen, Cecil B. DeMille’s The Ten Commandments (the 1923 version, not the 1956 one) as his lofty standards just take some time for completion, so we should be seeing contributions from him any day now.

Darkest Hour (Joe Wright)

“Executive Summary” (no spoilers): Set in the tight-time-frame of May-early June, 1940 this film’s a fictionalization of the installation of Winston Churchill as Great Britain’s new wartime Prime Minister, with a focus on his determination to resist the European conquest of the German Nazi advance, preventing the invasion of England even as France is falling and there's considerable political sentiment within both Parliament and Churchill’s own War Council to enter into peace talks with Hitler rather than risk total destruction of their homeland, a situation made even more desperate by the looming possibility of the loss of some 300,000 Allied troops trapped on the French coast at Dunkirk as the Germans are rapidly advancing. Given the historical foundations of this film (with even Churchill’s large daily alcohol consumption a matter of record) I’m not sure what I could say that would amount to a spoiler (You do know who won WW II, don’t you?) so I guess I’ll just steer clear of the dramatic event (if it even happened) that inspired Churchill’s final stand prior to his refusal-of-surrender-speech in the House of Commons that rallied support for Great Britain standing firm against the Germans until such time as the U.S. finally entered the war.

While you can get numerous historical accounts of this brief period in Churchill’s lengthy political life through various print, cinematic, and video sources, a particular value of Darkest Hour is the astounding performance of already-award-nominated Gary Oldman in the lead role, along with the well-written-scenes (however fanciful they may be) of Churchill’s private life where dialogues with his wife, his supporters, and his political enemies help give useful insights into his public appearances that are so well-dramatized here. Darkest Hour’s not playing in very many theaters yet, but that’s sure to change so I highly encourage you to seek it out when it becomes available.

Here’s the trailer: (Use the full screen button in the image’s lower right to enlarge it; activate that same button on the full screen’s lower right or your “esc” keyboard key to return to normal size.)

If you can abide plot spoilers read on, but as this blog’s intended for those who’ve seen the film—or want to save some bucks—to help any of you who want to learn more details yet avoid important plot-reveals I’ll identify any give-away sentences/sentence-clusters like this:

⇒The first and last words will be noted with arrows and red.⇐ OK, now continue on if you prefer.

What Happens: It’s May, 1940. Do you know where your children are? If you’re British they’re probably engaged somehow in the war effort (as are you, the rest of your family, your neighbors, and anyone else worried sick Hitler’s armies currently advancing through other countries on the other side of the English Channel will soon be invading your shores, with the film’s opening graphics over newsreel footage of Germans on the march). That’s the ongoing focus of Darkest Hour at the point where the ruling Conservative Party—along with the general public—has lost all faith in the appeasement policies of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlin (Ronald Pickup), whose attempts at “peace in our time” with the Nazis proved useless so there’s intense clamoring for immediate new leadership, with First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill (Gary Oldman) the only option acceptable to the opposition Labour Party, despite the fact Edward Wood—known as Viscount Halifax (Stephen Dillane)—furiously desires the position, hoping to work with Chamberlin (both of them chosen by Churchill to be part of his exclusive War Council) to discredit Churchill over his opposition to peace negotiations with the Germans so as to later claim his desired political prize. King George VI (Ben Mendelsohn) isn’t thrilled with making this appointment either (although he’ll later become a very close ally with his PM) due to Churchill’s lingering bad reputation for misjudgments connected to Allied slaughter in WW I's Gallipoli Campaign, nor are we initially convinced Winston should be the leader of the forces attempting to stop the voracious Nazi ambitions, given his seemingly-impossible-ability to stay consistently sober (demanding all meals—including breakfast—be accompanied by Scotch whiskey [along with refills during the day], with added Champaign at lunch and dinner, plus constant cigars), along with his imperious manner (except for his deference when he’s in the King’s presence, you’d have good reason to assume Churchill’s actually the monarch, despite George’s dress in military garb, appropriate for this wartime setting) that initially has his secretary Elizabeth Layton (Lily James) in tears over his criticism she type his constant dictation in double space (more tedious on a manual typewriter), even as he gives her notes in another instance while he’s in the bathtub, she's sitting out in the hall.

After working with him for just a short time, though (this film’s chronology goes only into early June, 1940) she becomes one of his most loyal supporters,* along with his wife of many years, Clementine (Kristen Scott Thomas)—eternally loving, loyal, but never afraid to confront her husband about poor decisions—with both of them needed as Chamberlin and Halifax further their subversive plot, encouraged by the terrible reality the Germans have swept into France, pushing about 300,000 British and French soldiers onto the French Atlantic coastal enclave of Dunkirk, risking capture or annihilation, virtually assuring a successful German invasion of England. Halifax keeps pushing the defiant Churchill to accept Italy’s offer of peace negotiations, which the new PM resists, convinced Hitler can’t be trusted to abide by any but his own terms, with British subjugation surely the end result, treaty or not. While most of what we witness in Darkest Hour consists of either conversations in well-appointed-but dark-confining-rooms or contentious speeches in the chambers of Parliament, Wright adds some useful visual maneuvers to energize various scene transitions or shot culminations, including long pans from screen left to right along London streets using slow motion to indicate the sense of time standing almost still as these intense negotiations (more like arguments) go on among the political leadership as to how to respond to Nazi aggression and a couple of great nighttime tracking shots where the camera begins on an individual (a military commander at Dunkirk or Churchill in London), then moves high into the sky, indicating the lonely, tiny presence of these men as great forces gather around them (especially the Dunkirk shot, where bombers fly across the screen, then explosions rip the ground below them). Even the widescreen format of this film often feels claustrophobic as faces move into extreme closeup range from their background environments, heads almost cropped off by the upper and lower borders of the frame.

*Giving him the crucial advice his “V for Victory” hand gesture needs to be palm-forward because when it’s backhand-forward it means “up your arse.” When many of us in the 1960s used it as the Peace sign, I don’t think we knew that distinction; maybe that’s why there was so much resistance to our anti-war-movement—you’ve just gotta understand the full nuances of nonverbal language!

Churchill’s statements (“When youth departs, may wisdom prove enough.”) and speeches (“I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat …,” “We shall fight on the beaches …” [more on the latter at the end of this review]) spread throughout the film’s short timeframe help us quickly grow to appreciate his resolve in not bending to Hitler’s will, especially at a point when it seems the situation is becoming so dire for England the country has no choice except to accept peace terms rather than risk the potential of complete destruction. While most of what’s presented here either is linked to the events occurring on specific days for the public pronouncements or reasonably inferred as to what types of interchanges occurred behind closed doors, ⇒the penultimate climax in this story (preceding Churchill’s defiant “We shall fight” speech resulting in thunderous support for his position, silencing his critics, thwarting the threats of Chamberlin and Halifax to resign thereby bringing Labour around to their side) where he breaks his own rule of never using London’s subway system in order to quickly get a sense of ordinary citizens’ feelings about war with Germany (uniformly in support of fighting to the end) is likely a fictional construct, but it helps hammer home the resolve this somewhat-reluctant-but-always-defiant-leader brought to his country at their time of existential crisis,⇐ helping bring more understanding to those who know the name "Churchill" only as an entry in a history book or as somehow connected to London’s Churchill Arms pub (a great place to visit; I speak from experience), a chance to see what true “Victory at all costs!” political leadership’s all about. (You’d have to look very hard in Washington, D.C. to find an equivalent at this point, although a few outspoken Senators and Congressmen/women are beginning to show resistance to the tyranny of Trump; sadly, even with Franklin D. Roosevelt in charge in 1940 the U.S. was of little help to our long-time-heritage-nation because of the 1930s Neutrality Acts preventing our involvement [except for possibly parking some planes near the Canadian border where they could be dragged into service], so we might need to visit that pub for a pint [or more] of London Pride when we get too cocky about our own assumed “exceptionalism.”)

Despite the horrors to come in succeeding years with the bombing of Britain and the Fascist subjugation of much of Europe until Allied victory in 1945, Darkest Hour ends in the most upbeat manner it can, with the King and his family deciding to ride out the war in England rather than flee to Canada, pre-credits graphics telling us how Operation Dynamo saved thousands of lives from the Dunkirk crisis, the sense of Churchill in triumph—even though the struggles of the next few years are implied but not elaborated with the notation that soon after German surrender Churchill’s party was voted out of control, he resigned as PM, Labour was ascendant for awhile, reminding us how fragile political alignments often are, no matter how resounding the leaders’ victories may be.

So What? When we Americans (or, in the context of this Brit-based-film, “Yanks”) think about WW II in Europe we tend to focus on our contributions to victory as depicted in films such as The Longest Day (1962; Ken Annakin, Andrew Marton, Bernhard Wicki; Oscars for Cinematography, Special Effects) or Saving Private Ryan (Steven Spielberg, 1998; Oscars for Directing, Cinematography, Sound Mixing, Film Editing, Sound Effects Editing)—we’d even like to think we made a major difference in ending the Holocaust, although we have to admit we turned many Jewish refugees away during that war while some of the most effective undermining of that horrid eradication program came from within the Nazi empire itself (shown in Schindler’s List [Spielberg, 1993; even more successful at the Oscars with wins for Best Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay, Original Score, Film Editing, Cinematography, Art Direction]) with actual liberation of those camps coming mostly from invading Soviet forces. However, to get a sense of how our close-ally-Great Britain was dealing with this continents-wide-horror (don’t forget the imposed German presence in North Africa) in 1940 before we even allowed ourselves to overcome our isolationism (another ignominious example of “America First”) as Hitler’s forces ran roughshod over Europe we have some other notable Oscar winners—and likely nominees—to view with The King’s Speech (Tom Hooper, 2010; Best Picture, Director, Actor [Colin Firth], Original Screenplay), focused on the emergence of reluctant King George VI as a rallying force for homefront-enthusiasm for the war effort along with this year’s 2-sides-of-the-same-coin-explorations of crucial events of May/June 1940 in Dunkirk (Christopher Nolan; review in our July 27, 2017 posting) focused on the massive evacuation of the trapped troops on the French coast now followed by Darkest Hour with its study of the political wrangling at the same time in London where the new (but not-yet-widely-acclaimed) PM was bucking intense pressure even in his own party to accept peace talks with the Third Reich.

When you put all of these recent British-focused-wartime-films together (along with others I haven't seen or have forgotten to mention), you get a solid sense of the unquestioned patriotism that emerged during this miserable time, allowing the residents of that cluster of small islands (backed up by their strong military machine, eventually aided by our even-stronger-one) to stand effectively against one of the most ruthless forces of conquest ever unleashed upon huge areas of our planet.

Certainly, the details of what happened throughout even this limited period of the early stages of WW II could be explored in more depth than what we get in Darkest Hour, but for those who know the larger contexts of any event they’ll surely find fault with every attempt at cinematic depiction given all that could be included, especially if filmmakers (and theater chains) want to gamble with 3-hour (or more) extravaganzas attempting to present the more-complete-picture to uncomfortably-squirming-audiences. Nevertheless, unless we insist on getting our history lessons only from limited-topic-films (rather than reading detailed accounts or watching miniseries on PBS or the History Channel) we’re likely better off piecing together depictions of aspects of the larger understanding with well-conceived, well-executed works such as Dunkirk and Darkest Hour (possibly along with an historical “sequel,” Churchill [Jonathan Teplitzky], also released this year focused on the 1944 Normandy landings [Brian Cox as Winston], but I haven’t seen it nor did it make much impact upon its short time in theaters [at Rotten Tomatoes it got 49% positive reviews, a 44% score at Metacritic]) which hone in on certain events (even mini-focues within larger events, as with Dunkirk) such as the now-unconscionable-option of a peace treaty with Hitler (doubtless a useless exercise in 1940 as shown by his negation of agreements with Stalin, leading to the vicious German invasion of Russia in 1941) to help us understand how history’s never as simple as it might seem to be in retrospect, especially as events begin approaching a century’s worth of forgetfulness, accompanied by the near-complete-loss of those who were there to witness World War II firsthand.

Bottom Line Final Comments: While it's possible Darkest Hour might receive some recognition for its script, makeup, or various technical aspects, the clear focus is on Gary Oldman’s portrayal of Churchill, which has already snagged him Best Actor nominations from the Screen Actors Guild (of their nominees I’ve so far seen only Daniel Kaluuya in Get Out [Jordan Peele; review in our May 11, 2017 posting] and Denzel Washington in Roman J. Israel, Esq. [Dan Gilroy; review in our November 29, 2017 posting]) and the Golden Globes (they nominate in both Drama and Comedy areas: regarding their Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture-Drama race, again I’ve seen only Oldman and Washington so far, but Oldman’s still #1 with me at this point), with widespread-speculation he’s also the frontrunner for similar Oscar honors. While Darkest Hour might even end up as one of the Academy’s Best Picture nominees (although I’ll probably have a slate of others that could push it out of such consideration for me)—⇒despite its questionable historical scene about Churchill venturing into the Underground for his first Tube trip in order to gather the opinions of the common folk about the war effort (a lot of conversation held while traveling just 1 stop to his destination)⇐ I certainly think Oldman’s performance will be remembered as what's astonishing here (the norm for him), with the need for any competition to be fully at the top of their own games in order to keep him from a yet-unmet-career-accomplishment. While the praise for Oldman’s near-universal, the critical response to the film as a whole’s a bit tempered (RT offers 86% positive reviews, those surveyed by MC show a 76% average score) while it’s hardly had a chance to connect with audiences yet, despite being out for 3 weeks, as its domestic (U.S.-Canada) theater count’s only at 53 so far, yielding a tiny return of only $1.2 million, but with such attention on Oldman those numbers are sure to notably expand in upcoming weeks.

If you’ve been following Film Reviews from Two Guys in the Dark for the last 6 years (I truly wonder if anyone besides myself and my ever-helpful/devoted-reader wife, Nina [thanks again for all your help, my Sweetheart], have even seen all of these postings—according to Google, a good number of people in Russia are at least occasional readers; I further wonder if that'll earn me a subpoena from Special Counsel Robert Mueller) you know I attempt to conclude each review with a Musical Metaphor offering a final perspective on the particular cinematic subject but from the viewpoint of the aural arts, just to make things as interesting (and, probably, weird) as possible for you, but it took me awhile to come up with a likely one for Darkest Hour. Finally (as posting time drew ever-nearer), I decided to pull a Martin Scorsese move (How’s that for creating outstanding company for yours truly?) by turning to something I’ve used twice before (I try to avoid that, just in case some of you actually are regulars; I get so little feedback, except from a few cherished contributors, I really have no idea) so for my “third time’s the charm” song here, I’ll pick the same one Scorsese’s also used 3 times (Goodfellas [1990], Casino [1995], The Departed [2006]), the Rolling Stones’ “Gimme Shelter” (from their 1969 Let It Bleed album) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kl6q_9q ZOs (where you also get lyrics down below the YouTube screen in case you’d like to give a “shout” away yourself on those soaring choruses) because, even though Keith Richards said it just began with the inspiration of an intense rainstorm where people were scrambling for any dry spot, it soon expanded to comment on the global violence of that era, including the ever-escalating Vietnam War.

These lyrics about “war […] rape, murder” as we “see the fire is sweeping Our very street today [… because such disasters were] just a shot away [then and remain so now unless we can turn to] love, sister It’s just a kiss away.” This song still seems desperately relevant to me today (as well as being one of the Stones’ greatest recording/performance accomplishments, especially when someone with the vocal power of Merry Clayton or Lisa Fischer joins Mick Jagger on the delivery), easily applicable to Britain’s tenuous situation in 1940 when its imminent destruction also seemed just “a shot away” from Hitler’s hoards had not defenders like Churchill, along with all the brave men and women from both sides of the Atlantic given their all for this cause. Back then there was the horrid concern of tyranny running rampant like a “Mad bull lost [its] way,” a terror finally put to rest in 1945. May we be spared a reprise of that in our own heavily-armed, trigger-happy world, but if you’d like a final dose of historical encouragement on this issue let me encourage you to listen to the full version of Churchill’s "We shall fight on the beaches ..." speech (12:17, from his June 4, 1940 address to the House of Commons; text shown on the screen along with appropriate images from WW II to illustrate various topics he explains, primarily about the successful evacuation of thousands of trapped troops from Dunkirk), used as the dramatic turning point in the film as he rallied his countrymen’s reluctant politicians to the cause of needed heroic defense of their freedom.

(attempt at) SHORT TAKES (but critical inclinations demand more)

Wonder Wheel (Woody Allen)

In a 1950s summer at Coney Island we find ourselves being told a serious story by one of its characters (so, truly, it’s his point of view) about how a struggling couple, each with a troubled child from a previous marriage, has little in common anymore, so much so that the wife’s having an affair with a younger lifeguard while her stepdaughter’s on the run from the mob.

Here's the trailer:

Before reading any further, I’ll ask you to refer to the plot spoilers warning far above.

When you’ve directed 43 feature films (as well as written/co-written all of them; I’m not counting TV movies, segments of anthology films, etc. or the few Allen wrote but didn’t direct) in 51 years (beginning with the “found art” revision, What’s Up, Tiger Lily? [1966]) it stands to reason not all of them will be considered masterpieces (even titans of other aspects of the visual-arts-world—except possibly for Michelangelo [in my opinion]—have plenty of acceptable work that’s not up to the highest-quality-level of their most-renowned-accomplishments), so it shouldn’t be any great shock that Wonder Wheel’s not fully of the same caliber as such triumphs as Annie Hall (1977), Manhattan (1979), Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989), or Blue Jasmine (2013), but that hasn’t kept most all of filmdom's critical-establishment-at-large from being very negative toward Woody’s latest offering, with RT noting only 32% positive reviews (of 112 when I went to post) while the folks surveyed by Metacritic yielded an uncharacteristically-higher-score, but only at 46%. Many of the complaints center on the sense this film's too much like a play, that it’s not cinematic enough (despite praise for master cinematographer Vittorio Storaro’s [Oscars for Apocalypse Now {Francis Ford Coppola, 1979}, Reds {Warren Beatty, 1981}, The Last Emperor {Bernardo Bertolucci, 1987}, plus other well-known-triumphs such as in Bertolucci’s The Conformist {1970} and Last Tango in Paris {1973} or Carlos Saura’s Tango {1998}] renderings of the colorful environment of Brooklyn’s Coney Island).

But, as noted in the second Related Links items for this film a bit farther below, Justin Timberlake (whose character, Mickey Rubin, has a crucial role in this story as well as narrating it to us with direct-address/4^th-wall-violations) says of Wonder … “It’s like a play on locations.” In that same link (and another one which wraps up this review) Kate Winslet (who plays Ginny Rannell) also notes the similarity here to the theatrical heritage along with her admiration for (and fear of) the intimidating quality of the script, just as Mickey tells us at the outset he’s in the NYU Masters program in European Theatre so his presentation of what happens here is flavored with his love for melodrama.

Whether these incorporated-justifications for what’s dismissed by many critics as artificial staginess will be acceptable to you or not will likely depend on whether you’re willing to grant Allen such artistic license or whether you feel these are desperate justifications attempting to account for a failed venture into serious drama without the relief of comedy Woody’s so well-known for nor even the romantic allure of such successes as Midnight in Paris (2011), instead offering us an extended-family-tragedy reminiscent of the interpersonal horrors found in the savage works of Tennessee Williams or Eugene O’Neill (the latter getting a notable mention within ... Wheel). Briefly, this constantly-confrontational-plot set in the 1950s concerns Ginny’s already-miserable-after-just-5-years-marriage to Humpty (Jim Belushi), who runs the boardwalk’s merry-go-round, easily shows off his quick temper, pines for a drink as she insists he stay on the wagon, with a running resentment for her young son, Richie (Jack Gore), by her first marriage (which failed because of a lusty affair which she just couldn’t reject, despite the deep love her jazz-drummer-former-husband had for her), a pyromaniac brat who not only sets small fires everywhere but also steals and skips summer school to watch movies. Widower Humpty’s got an adult kid from a former marriage, Carolina (Juno Temple), who surprisingly shows up to stay with Dad’s new family in their noisy apartment right above a shooting gallery, on the lam from her mobster husband because she squealed on him under pressure from the law (even though a couple of goons come looking for her, the excuse she’d never be here because of her falling-out with Humpty over her marriage holds up).

Soon she’s joined Ginny as a waitress in the local clam house, then adds the complication of a mutual attraction with Mickey, much to Ginny’s chagrin as she’s having an affair with him, expecting this younger lover to soon take her away from all her misery (complete with splitting headaches). Ginny even steals $400 from Humpty (another point of contention, as he suddenly warms to his daughter—now going to night school to become an English teacher—putting all his extra cash aside for Carolina) to claim a hocked pocket watch, which she engraves for Mickey, only for him to dash her dreams by saying he’s really got more attraction to Carolina (the watch is soon thrown away onto the beach as Ginny’s life-drama [she was once an aspiring actress] overwhelms her).

⇒Wrapping up the plot, Ginny finds the goons learn where Mickey and Carolina will be having dinner one night, decides against warning them for her own benefit, tries to play dumb when Carolina never comes home after Mickey also puts a hold on their involvement so they walked away separately after their meal. Mickey figures it all out, angrily confronts Ginny before storming off, Humpty’s back to drinking which can’t be good for Ginny (he gets physically abusive to go along with his verbal harangues), with the final shot of the film being the kid setting yet another fire, this time on the beach near the lifeguard stand.⇐ Admittedly, Ginny's dialogue at times (despite its eloquence) does seem more like theatrical soliloquys on love, mistakes, forgiveness than a naturalistic emotional outpouring; Humpty early on bears too easy a resemblance to Stanley Kowalski (Marlon Brando) in A Streetcar Named Desire (Elia Kazan [1951] for the film but with common knowledge Brando lit up Broadway with the role prior to its adaptation); the whole premise at times feels like the more morbid aspects of O’Neill, Tennessee Williams, and Arthur Miller (although you can’t fault Allen for being inspired by them the same way he was by Ingmar Bergman for his earlier more serious works, such as the superb Interiors [1978]—shot by another virtuoso cinematographer, frequent Allen collaborator Gordon Willis [all 3 of Coppola’s Godfathers {1972, 1974, 1990} among many other notable achievements]—clearly evoking aspects of Bergman’s Cries and Whispers [1972], shot by yet-another-camera-master, Sven Nykvist); and the obvious use of Expressionism (especially in the way certain night scenes in the Rannell apartment are lit with the nearby neon lights, throwing intense reds, blues, and yellows onto the characters’ faces) seem to be offsetting to a good many critics, but overall I found it to be powerful in many scenes with Winslet due consideration as a Best Actress Oscar contender, although the negative reviews, the limited exposure (now only in 47 domestic theaters after 2 weeks in release) with correspondingly low grosses (just about $300 thousand so far) don’t bode well, even for such deserved recognition.

I’ll encourage you to see Wonder Wheel (the title’s an oblique reference to the huge Ferris wheel often dominating the background of many of the shots) if you can find it, but only if you’re willing to accept the total lack of humor (except maybe some “Oh, shit!” audience reactions when Carolina’s getting into trouble with Mickey she has no clue about, or possibly the irony of Richie setting a fire in his psychiatrist’s office), the difficulty of finding a place where it’s playing, and its intentionally-mannered-presentation at times. To help you mull over that choice, I’ll finish with my Musical Metaphor, “Act Naturally,” at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5rpAqfd35Q (Beatles live show, date unknown; written by Johnny Russell and Voni Morrison; first recorded [as a hit single] in 1963 by Buck Owens and the Buckaroos; on The Beatles’ 1965 U.K. Help! album and 1966 U.S. Yesterday and Today album)—with its amusing commentary on a broken-hearted-lover becoming a “big star [… if all he’s] gotta do is act naturally […] ‘Cause I can play the part so well,” providing my little sarcasm to those who bemoan Wonder Wheel’s anti-Naturalistic script/performances but also acknowledging how all the main characters in this film are/become “The biggest fool[s … in their own lives, leading] sad and lonely [existences].” Hopefully, this comic counterpoint to … Wheel’s near-unrelenting-intensity will keep you satisfied (especially if you need some palate-cleansing if you actually see the film) until next we meet. Or, if that doesn’t work too well as a sendoff, you might enjoy a short video (7:01) of Winslet describing how Allen recruited her for the role, doing a nice imitation of him in the process; then, to further such explorations into the creative process for actors here’s a marvelous conversation (32:34) between Winslet and Gary Oldman discussing their respective roles in Wonder Wheel and Darkest Hour, a great opportunity to learn about how such well-respected-thespians are a lot more worried about being able to conquer the on-screen-challenges they face than we might ever suspect of them, given the successes we see on screen.

Now, I’ll truly close on a minor note (so to speak) about one of the last links in the cluster below, “Hotel California,” where I’ve once again capitulated to the Google/YouTube overlords: I chose at some past point to use this song among my 3 regular posting signoffs, specifically the version from the 1998 ceremony where The Eagles were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but YouTube later took down the link due to some copyright problem. However, I found another link of the same material, used it instead until it too disappeared; this went on for 10 more repeats (including just a 1-week-lag between my postings of 2 weeks ago and last week). Then, when I found last week that my latest re-link was gone after only 1 day I just gave up and starting using the audio-only-version provided to YouTube by Warner Music Group, so hopefully it’ll remain stable from here on out (but none of the “Hotel California” links on my previous postings will work—except those from 12/7/2017, the Summary of Two Guys Reviews page [originally posted July 5, 2013, regularly updated], and our ancient, original ABOUT THE Blog homepage [December 12, 2011, as noted at the top of this posting]), so do me a favor, scroll down to the “Hotel California” link far below here before you click off, and listen to it just to make all of this silly trouble worthwhile. Pat and I thank you so very much.

Links Which You Might Find Interesting:

*A Google software glitch causes every Two Guys posting prior to August 26, 2016 to have an inaccurate (dead) link to this Summary page; from then forward, though, this link is accurate.

Here’s more information about Darkest Hour:

http://focusfeatures.com/darkesthour

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Xn6YUu8FzQ (41:49 press conference with director Joe Wright, screenwriter Anthony McCarten, and actors Gary Oldman, Kristin Scott Thomas, Ben Mendelsohn [begins with trailer attached to this review, audio very low until the actual round of interviews begins when the volume finally increases])

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/darkest_hour_2017

http://www.metacritic.com/movie/darkest-hour

Here’s more information about Wonder Wheel:

http://www.wonderwheelmovie.com

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y68G6rymZjA (32:53 press conference with producer Erika Aronson and actors Kate Winslet, Justin Timberlake, Jim Belushi, Juno Temple [audio hampered by the echo of the room, makes some statements inaudible, which is a shame because their audience is having such an hilarious time—I tried using the closed-caption feature but it proved to be both inconsistent and inaccurate; the video quality’s not so great either, but hopefully even if you only get about half of it you’ll still find a lot of useful insights into Allen’s working procedures on the set])

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/wonder_wheel

http://www.metacritic.com/movie/wonder-wheel

If you’d rather contact Ken directly rather than leaving a comment here please use my email address of kenburke409@gmail.com. (But if you truly have too much time on your hands you might want to explore some even-longer-and-more-obtuse-than-my-film-reviews—if that even seems possible—academic articles about various cinematic topics at my website, https://kenburke.academia.edu, which could really give you something to talk to me about.)

By the way, if you’re ever at The Hotel California knock on my door—but you know what the check out policy is so be prepared to stay for awhile. Ken

Finally, for the data-oriented among you, Google stats say over the past month (which they seem to measure from right now back 30 days) the total unique hits at this site were 10,918 (a continually-declining-number as of late—oh well, fame is fleeting, even for this fabulous site); below is a snapshot of where and by what means those responses have come from within the previous week: