Margot Robbie

Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood
  • IMDb: link

Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood movie reviewThe latest from writer/director Quentin Tarantino includes all the trappings that fans have come to expect over the past two decades. Overly talky, in need of a little editing, with a few too many shots of his characters’ feet, Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood is still quite entertaining and easily the best film Tarantino has made since 2009’s Inglourious Basterds. Most comparable with Death Proof, Once Upon a Time offers a slow build-up focused on character and snappy dialogue before jumping headfirst into an explosive finale.

Set in 1969 Hollywood, the plot follows the exploits of western star Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) on the downside of his career, his friend and stuntman Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt), his new neighbor Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie), and the Manson Family. The separate threads will eventually intertwine late in the film’s final act on one fateful night in the Hollywood Hills, but for most of the film Tarantino takes his time with each, featuring the Dalton/Booth friendship most prominently with plenty of inserts of the the actor’s glory days as the star of Bounty Law which came to an abrupt end after he started chasing a movie career.

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I, Tonya

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  • Title: I, Tonya
  • IMDb: link

I, Tonya movie reviewI, Tonya is a compelling, if flawed, look at the life and career of Tonya Harding (Margot Robbie) memorable mostly for the terrific performances of Robbie and co-star Allison Janney (as Tonya’s mother). Framed as flashbacks told through a series of current interviews (which were actually shot as reference for the script) we watch a young Tonya struggle with acceptance in ice skating despite her obvious talent, her troubled relationships with her mother and husband (Sebastian Stan), and the events leading up to the attack on rival Nancy Kerrigan (Caitlin Carver).

While a bit too apologetic of Harding in an attempt to allow audiences to see her as the victim of circumstance she believes herself to be, writer Steven Rogers embraces the trashy tabloid nature of the the entire sordid affair going so far as to include Bobby Cannavale as a Hard Copy producer. Director Craig Gillespie‘s film isn’t without its missteps including Robbie taking over the role of Tonya at 13 (seriously, was I the only one thinking of Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story at this point?) and some awkward CGI that doesn’t always properly fit Robbie’s face to her stunt double on the ice.

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Goodbye Christopher Robin

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  • Title: Goodbye Christopher Robin
  • IMDb: link

Goodbye Christopher Robin movie reviewBased on the true story of writer A. A. Milne (Domhnall Gleeson) and his creation Winnie-the-Pooh, Goodbye Christopher Robin is more than it initially might seem. Much like Milne himself, returned from war with PTSD and struggling with getting back to work as a writer, the script by Frank Cottrell Boyce and Simon Vaughan struggles before getting the man and his family into the setting which would eventually help create one of the world’s most-beloved fictional characters.

The rest of the household consists of Milne’s wife Daphne (Margot Robbie) who is more concerned with prestige, fame, and money than her husband, their young son Christopher (Will Tilston) whose interactions with his stuffed animals will lead to the inspiration behind Milne’s most-popular work, and his nanny (Kelly Macdonald). The film turns out to be as much about the young boy as his father and how the growing fame slowly destroyed the relationship which the creation of Pooh helped create between father and son. For a film about Winnie-the-Pooh, it’s more melancholy than I expected, but it also proves to have some unexpected depth.

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Suicide Squad

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  • Title: Suicide Squad
  • IMDb: link

Suicide SquadMaybe DC should shy away from its major heroes and concentrate on the fringes of the DCU. I don’t know that you should call a $175 million theatrical release with an excessive marketing campaign a B-movie but that’s exactly what Suicide Squad is. Writer/director David Ayer delivers an unapologetically trashy B-movie that, despite its faults, is fun.

Sure, the script spends far too long awkwardly introducing the various super-villains thrown together by Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) for her super-secret black ops squad. And yes, the final act suffers from a villain more interested in putting on a giant light show than presenting a coherent threat. However, somewhere in-between these problematic areas Ayer provides room for his cast of malcontents to shine.

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