Lean on Pete

Only in retrospect you realize how relevant to our current times and how anachronic in terms of our media culture is Lean on Pete, the story of a teenager (Charlie Plummer) who becomes an orphan and must face homelessness right away and without warning. He does not see it that way though, and as in real life stories, things happen to you while you are busy looking other way. In this case, the focus of that look is a race horse called Pete. The kid has developed a close attachment with the horse, an attachment that defies all of our cinematic clichés about a boy and a horse: there is not an exciting and triumphant riding lifting our spirits and no racing awards at the end of the road. There is only the distressing journey to the unknown, the hope of a better future and a feeling of precariousness in the middle of a happy ending that the young and courageous main character more than deserves. British director Andrew Haig has conjured a sort of discreet, reluctant masterpiece, the kind of film that, unfortunately, endears critics and goes unnoticed by the bulk of moviegoers. Beautiful and compassionate, this is one of the best movies I have seen this year so far.

The Snowman

I saw The Snowman yesterday. It took me more than 24 hours to digest my disappointment at the movie and also at myself. Let me explain. In the trailer you see great actors and a beautiful photography in a cold Nordic environment (Norway). Perfect, I thought: a serial killer story. Everything checked to be awesome except for the terrible reviews but I thought, “What do they know?” Then again, at the end I realized that the movie actually sucks. Big time. The director apparently apologized and explained something about an unfinished script even after they started filming. Not the first time I hear something like this but it is the first time that I noticed how terrible the results can be. Maybe Tomas Alfredson was not skilled enough to deal with the situation, I don’t know. But at the end you have wonderful actors delivering wonderful acting… that seems from another movie, pieces here and there that barely make sense, and me losing all interest way far away from the plot resolution. What a waste of time.

Making It scary

I think that Stephen King is so good depicting horror because he is good depicting everything else —the whole range of what is being human, that is. That’s the success of It, which takes its time fleshing out its charismatic young characters with realism and consistency to make the scares believable too. In their world, adults are cold and cruel, complicit in a way to the darkness beneath their town. You may notice Argentine Director Andrés Muschietti’s attention to detail in every scene, from the recreation of the late eighties, to an effective score that is always present but never overwhelming, and of course in the grittiness of the heavy action/special effects scenes that seem to be an effective mix of mechanic and digital artistry. Even Pennywise is scarier since he is awfully smart, and this second version of It (the previous was a 1990 2-part TV show) allows us to grasp that too. Even at a length of 2 hours plus you feel the narrative economy of a tight script. This is commercial moviemaking at its best. Do not miss it.

Wind River

Taylor Sheridan directed the quasi neorealist Hell or High Water before Wind River, a slow-moving thriller that freezes your bones to their core not for the Wyoming mountains snow, but because it reminds us the dreadful reality of Indian reservations and the white-male macho violence always ready to erupt in this America that wants to be great again. Never been more impressed with Jeremy Renner who is a wildlife agent who helps to investigate a crime in this harsh environment. He actually has to act – with moving results I think – which is something we barely see in action movies anymore. Hope you can see it at the theater.