Photo © Universal Pictures
Cillian Murphy in 'Oppenheimer'
Cillian Murphy in 'Oppenheimer'
Barbie
(In Theaters, July 21)
The Mattel toy becomes a PG-13 comedy, clocking in at nearly two hours. The film is directed and co-written by Greta Gerwig, who purchased a Barbie as a young girl—over her mother’s objections. When her purchase was followed by a Barbie Dreamhouse for Gerwig’s birthday, the future director had everything she needed to imagine a future film.
Here, Gerwig accomplishes a rare feat, penning a mildly subversive script that will appeal to most Barbie fans. Living in her stairless, multi-story pink dreamhouse, Barbie (Margot Robbie) asks her fellow Barbies whether they ever think about death. Verbalizing this out-of-the box question upends Barbie’s relationships with other Barbies (played by Emma Mackey, Alexandra Shipp, Hari Nef, Issa Rae and Sharon Rooney, to name just some). When Ken (Ryan Gosling) defends his gal, the pair are expelled from Barbie Land. Enter Weird Barbie (Kate McKinnon), who arranges for their release into the real world. At least they still have Barbie’s pink Cadillac and their yellow roller blades. Barbie is stunned by the existence of old people, but the experience is truly profound for Ken whose entire world previously included working out, “Beaching,” and being arm-candy for his girl. Gerwig happily explores the duo’s adventures, while creating a captivating Barbieland, provided you’re all about pink. In fact, the film used so much of Rosco’s Pantone 219, the specific pink paint used for all things Barbie, that the company briefly ran out. Word is, expect Oscar nominations for both set and costume design. (Lisa Miller)
Moko Jumbie
(IndiePix Classic DVD)
Asha is a young British woman of East Indian descent visiting relatives on Trinidad. “Dusk to dusk, girl. You shouldn’t wander too far from the house,” her aunt insists. Is she being warned about crime, given tensions between the island’s Indian and African citizens—or do spirits roam the tropical night?
Vashti Anderson’s Moko Jumbie (2017) is often brilliant, sustaining a low simmer of suspense in an atmosphere pregnant with adventure and wonder. Asha’s mysterious uncle tells her, “Anything that can happen, does happen.” He speaks of multiverses and innumerable realities but is he also alluding to the forbidden romance that might blossom between Asha and the African boy across the way, Roger? Vanna Girod brings a broad spectrum of emotion to her performance as Asha, a woman confronted by attraction, repulsion, duty, disregard and occasional encounters with the uncanny. (David Luhrssen)
Oppenheimer
(In Theaters, July 21)
Those familiar with director Christopher Nolan, know that Oppenheimer won’t be your average biopic. Nolan became fascinated with the moral quandary of bringing an atom bomb to fruition. The director, known for writing his own, distinctly original screenplays, adapted Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 721-page, 2005 biography, American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, into a three-hour film.
Cillian Murphy portrays J. Robert Oppenheimer, with a supporting cast that includes Emily Blunt (as Oppenheimer’s wife), Matt Damon as Lt. General Leslie Groves Jr., Florence Pugh as Oppenheimer’s mistress, Robert Downey Jr., Josh Hartnett, Casey Affleck, Rami Malek and Kenneth Branagh, among a “Who’s Who” list of others. To pull off this hat trick, Nolan persuaded Blunt, Damon and Downey Jr. to each forgo their usual $10–$20 million salaries for payment of $4 million apiece. The film is divided between color and black-and-white segments, the latter representing Oppenheimer’s thoughts and narration. Additionally, Nolan used no special effects in simulating the atomic blasts and built a replica of the New Mexico desert settlement where the bomb’s creation and tests occurred.
His remarkable terms with Universal Studios include: A production and marketing budget of $100 million dollars each, a theatrical window of 100 days, 20 percent of the film’s ticket gross and a three-week period, both before and after the film’s release, that prohibits Universal from releasing any other new film. The result has so far been seen by few. One viewer, Paul Schrader, author of the acclaimed Taxi Driver, posted on Facebook, “Oppenheimer. The best, most important film of this century. If you see one film in cinemas this year it should be Oppenheimer. I’m not a Nolan groupie but this one blows the doors off the hinges.” The stuff of a Best Picture Oscar? (Lisa Miller)
