#SceneStealing FOCUS (2015)

Focus Up. 

By TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

(For the opening scene of #FilmsForFridays' new feature, #SceneStealing-were we breakdown the best scenes in films in more detail-we start with 2015's 'Focus' starring Will Smith and Margot Robbie. WARNING: Specific scene spoilers, but not plot points follow.) 

"Can I get in on this?!" 

'Focus'. Like critics thought the latest Will Smith cinematic comeback vehicle ('Bright', 'Aladdin', 'Gemini Man' and the latest 'Bad Boys For Life' have been fun for the 'Independence Day' and 'Men In Black' 90's blockbuster icon lately, but he still needs that 'Ali' knockout comeback for his 'Pursuit Of Happyness') and Margot Robbie hottest actor of the moment starter (just 'I, Tonya', 'Once Upon A Time...In Hollywood', 'Bombshell' and 'The Fantabulous Emancipation Of One Harley Quinn' look at her now) could have needed more of a half (can you believe it's been that long?) decade ago. But even if the con wasn't on for some critics, it still held a lot of cards. As a punch, drunk Smith laid out on the marble floor of a fancy Florida party, hungover after being thrown out by two bouncers like the way the fickle industry treats its most marketable, money making asset actors and groaned, "I've still got it". You do Prince. Pump it up! Still so fresh at fifty, like Ali swinging and dancing at sixty. Hustling hard it had its way. The chemistry between 'Suicide Squad' stars Margot and Will was compellingly set. It looked as slick as Smith did suited smart. And after an iconic one-shot car crash that hit you head on like a punch, you can feel it had an epic ending that was as thrilling as it was tense and powerful as it wasn't predictable. 

New Orleans, Louisiana and the Mercedes Superdome held a sensational and stirring scene however that remains one of the smartest and best-yet most underrated in movies-in years. And how good for things to be celebrated in there again? The place could use that like 'Mindhunter' Holt McCallany in 'Sully' said New York could use the 'Miracle On The Hudson'. The whole scene and set-up that follows lasts a shade under 20 minutes, but that's a lifetime for a movie that clocks in at around one hour and 45 minutes. And coming into play at the first half hour, the rest of the movie can't quite top these high stakes. The morning after Deadshot and Harley Quinn have spent the night together, they have tickets to the big game...which Margot has managed to sleight of hand grab off Will's person, like he's been David Blaine-ing all movie. In the throws of a lustful love that's wasted on the young they can't believe their luck...or seats ("it's just one of the many wonderful things about being me" Smith says in confident reply to how he got these tickets, in a way only he can make sound charming and anything but cocky. Probably because it's true). "Is this a bad time to mention I don't really like football", Robbie asks awkward grinning, to which Smith playfully replies, "yeah...like the WORST time possible!" "It just seems like a lot of standing around all the time" (she's not wrong). So they decide to make things more interesting. "Forget football we can still have fun" Smith says searching the bleachers or an opportunity. Or a bet. That man won't catch the Hail Mary hot dog. $1. The shirtless guy rocking the Party, number 69 body painted jersey won't get up for the Mexican wave. $10. Cha-ching, Margot knows her drunks. The best looking couple in the arena are starting to get attention. Tiebreaker. A woman in short shorts is walking up the stands. How many men check her out? Margot: 8. Will: 3.

Five!

"Can I get on this", said the man who once told you as a kid that all the dinosaurs in, 'Jurassic Park' were female. You may recognise B.D. Wong these days from the genetically engineered scientist come villain in the 'Jurassic World' sequels, (the plot twist we hate to see, but love to still have him in the park, back in the lab) and T.V. shows like Rami Malek's 'Mr. Robot',  or how about being Arkham Asylum's own perfect prescribed Hugo Strange in 'Gotham' that we already miss tonight? But here pencil moustache, pin-striped and scotched to the eyeballs, this slicked back CONnoisseur for your change lifting his blinged pinky as he raises his glass of ice is dripping in new money and scene stealing, camp charisma as he sits a few seats higher one leg over the other, cocksure as downstairs. With the second most beautiful girl in the arena that everyone's checking out, bet by his side. Margot knowing her letches like she does her drunks wins this one. Money, money, money. But Sherlock the game is only just afoot. Wong wants a chance to make his money back. We're in a penalty situation...but Margot "(doesn't) know football" so as B.D. Take a seat next to Big Willie she let's the guys pissing contest play. We're into grands now like piano and Will drops the first one like falling keys. It's all fun and games. 5 thou. "He's been drinking". "I HAVE!" B.D. leans in to reply playfully. "Do they pass or run?" Money in Wong's pocket. OUCH! "Ouch is right". And on that note...or five thousand of 'em, Will calls it. Time for a drink. A double perhaps?

Double or nothing? Wong won't let up. "Come on I want to play...I like you" he flirts. Lightly hitting Will with the wad he's just lifted off him like he's dusting his jacket for lint. "You can't lose". He can. $10,000 gone like the condiment stand. He's got the hooks in him now. 50. Margot's starting to get wooried. "He's not going to return the kick". He's going to take a knee like that hero Kaepernick, Trump called a traitor (takes one to know one...one who is the exact opposite of that to America, whilst they all complain about not getting a haircut). The seemingly friendly facade drops into a returned cold as ice grill after Wong endearingly realises Will likes to make things interesting. But he's not going to return his money. The camerwork starts to act like Smith is drunk, even though it's his betting partner, cleaning him out whose holding the glass like all the cards. Turns out Will is woozy off another addiction, and there's no way out of this circling the bottom of the glass like a drain now. He's all in, with nothing to bet with, forget nothing to lose. The drums that Charlie Watts forgot for Lady Gaga's One World Together Live At Home stream of the Rolling Stones start to play. But will there be sympathy for this devil? "Wow...WOW!" He starts to get his Owen Wilson on. It's on now. "Give me a second...give me a second". 100 grand. "You don't have one hundred thousand".

Yeah he does.

"Please allow me to introduce myself" Jagger croons as Will Smith racks up stacks like chips in Vegas. Do you want any fives with that (Chris Tucker voice). "I'm a man of wealth and taste". Well so is B.D. Wong, high rolling and upping the ante out his briefcase like something in the movies. The money bands are out like we were exchanging foreign currency. Smith is serious. Wong in control is all smirks and smiles, still friendly, still flirting. They should get a room. Margot just wishes she wasn't in this one right now...but the Costner channeling bodyguard who treats B.D. like Whitney won't let her. Wong calls his dog off. It's not about hostility. This is his suite and this is just too sweet. It's about hospitality. Next play. Pass incomplete. Shrugs of why not. No it's not. Can you guess who made THAT bet? Robbie's reaction says it all. Ball roll. Eye roll. Wong makes a sound like a purring cat, clinks glasses with his friends. "We're going...WE'RE GOING", Margot implores barrelling the duffle bag that's all about the Benjamins stuffed full into Smith's chest. He walks away and then works a spin move on Robbie that 'The Last Dance' of Jordan would be proud of to pick and roll. "All of it". He empties the duffel onto the table like the movies...hey when in the French Quarter right. 1.1 million. But it ain't just his money. Its everybody's. Margot's too. He slams a pack of cards down like a joker. High card takes it all. "You're crazy" B.D. warns, "and I like it" he endears, beckoning his men to bring his briefcase to the table, as the smile returns like Smith wishes his luck would as Wong's won't run out. "After you" Smith ever the gentleman. Hand over the heart, almost mockingly if B.D. wasn't so nice, "thank you". He gets his right hand all warmed up, stogie in the other. Tongue out like M.J. But then he picks a hand of cards no thinner than a coaster...and it's the five of clubs. The house comes down like the cards did on Spacey. Wong shows the first sing of frustration. Saying something in his mother tongue, not really under his breath as he slides the cards back like a credit card through the reader fot a spoilt child. "What's that" Smith says some of his trademark, charismatic confidence coming back to the steely, simmering surface. "It's just an expression". "The rough translation is-as Will picks the three of hearts-I Am F#####!" The smile returns. The one Will has been wearing for the last ten minutes does too. Margot slumps to the floor. They begin to walk out in slow motion like Wong's cigar smoke swirling in victory. The songs switched to "there's nothing in my dreams, just some ugly memories". If Will hasn't lost it all...including Robbie, he has now. The lighter goes back in the pocket. The cigar burns orange embers at the tip. "Sorry friend. That's what happens when you play with the big boys".

Will doesn't make it to the door. Margot's eyes fall to the floor. "Oh F###!" Double it. Even B.D.s GQ cool veneer drops, "ah man, dude what are you doing". Smith doesn't respond to people telling him he's got a problem, his character has probably heard that his whole life. Will reckons he can guess the number of any player picked through the binoculars of this high rise like suite. Wong doesn't like it. OK. Smith sweetens the deal. Wong picks. Robbie guesses. WHAT?! That's like 100-1. 2 million. F###### crazy. But would you turn down free money? You've got a bet. Out come the binos as Margot's Australia would say. "Don't touch me. What it's not enough you lost everybodies money, my money". "Eugh, she sounds like my wife" Mr. Wong says whilst choosing for the funniest moment in this whole slickly, sickly tense scene. Let's play. "Don't make me do this". Nike response. "Just do it". Wong picks, asks if he wants him to write it down, but Will trusts him. Margot's turn. One last chance to back down? Hell no. She scans the field as B.D. giddly dances next to her, he knows it's in the bag like shopping. She doesn't know what to do. But then as the Stones drums come back in her eyes widen like she doesn't even need those viewfinders anymore. She finds what's she's looking for like U2. A face in the crowd. A familiar one. A friend. Rocking the number. I didn't know he played football. He doesn't...that's the point. Number 55. Wong turns to a smiling Will, smiling too. "No". He looks to Margot. "No". Shakes his head in slow motion. "No, no, no, no, NO F###### WAY! That is unbelievable! HOW DID YOU DO THAT!?" "I'm right?!" "F###! YES!" He actually sounds kind of happy. "You're f##### right!" "You're not mad", Margot asks I'm disbelief. "NO F###### WAY" he screams like HE just won the jackpot, not lost 2 million as he plants a kiss on her cheek like a check. "We have got to go to Vegas RIGHT now" he tells Smith as he shakes his hand with both of his like you just sadly wouldn't do right now. "I have a jet". "That was incredible...did you see what she just did?" His friends look as happy as he does...even his girlfriend whose in for a cheap Christmas. "And you" he says to Smith, hand on hip, cock and the walk, swagger strutting over as he sways and talks about the size of Will's minerals. "You are my new f###### hero!" Will finally relaxed with the weight of the world and his whole body seemingly out of him and off his shoulders as he leans on the woman of the moment Margot Robbie points back and cheekily says it..."double or nothing?" "WOOOOOAH! NO F###### way!" Wong replies as Margot hits Will playfully telling him off. "GET THE F### OUT MY SUITE" he half jokingly replies in kind. "NOW"! "TOUCHDOWN...YEAH", screams number 55, slapping the coaches butt like he just completed a play (he did) and telling him their score is settled, as the Mandarin, "woo, woo's" of the Rolling Stone's 'Sympathy Of The Devil' repeats for the 124th time. Now! Want to know how they did it?

Focus and watch the movie. 

REVIEW: EXTRACTION

3.5/5

Infinity Warfare. 

117 Mins. Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Rudhraksh Jaiswal, Randeep Hooda, Priyanshu Painyuli, Golshifteh Farahani, Pankaj Tripathi & David Harbour. Director: Sam Hargrave. 

Endgame: 'Extraction'. A motorbike chases down Chris Hemsworth's convoy of trucks driving through the streets of Bangladesh. The man is looking at the road as much as you do anything but your phone as your busy trying to get to sleep. His focus is on the leading light that is the avenging, mighty Thor in the backseat. The rider is holding up a photo in an attempt to get the God of Thunder's attention who is filming the whole thing for his social media platforms. "Yes mate. Not in the middle of the traffic though", he says through the window. "Watch out for the..." he gasps as we all almost swallow our hearts. "Oh God". The motorcyclist disappears. "Oh God". But then after a near miss he's back with a friend on the back. And another motorbike flanking them as they pass the photo between each other. "Did you see the hand-off" a laughing Hemsworth says. "I KNOW MATE! PLEASE YOU'RE GONNA CRASH!" They keep shouting at him through the glass. "Yes, alright, once we stop there. I'm not even driving. I can't control this". Then the truck gets to a stop, Chris with all the guys surrounding them gives up what they want ("it's quite an effort. He deserves this") and a thumbs up group selfie, as Hemsworth posts on his Twitter and Instagram,"persistence pays off. Not only did this guy get an autograph, he also does all my motorbike stunts from now on" in what may just be one of the most epic events that happened whilst filming his latest film 'Extraction'.

Help, wanted. It's a good job, because in Hemsworth's latest Hollywood picture, the ruling Aussie goes all Mad Max in Punisher military grade. Stunting as a mercenary who needs to go behind enemy lines like Owen Wilson (WOW...dated reference) and rescue a drug lords son before dawn. Using all the 'John Wick' chapter and verse violence he can think of in Netflix's new film 'Extraction' (not to be confused with Bruce Willis 2015 straight to DVD action fare. Or the 2013 Danny Glover fil...yeah movie names are getting too old for this s###). No pencil? No f###### problem! This soldier Sideshow Bobs people with rakes. Oh and his name? Tyler Rake! NUEUEREUEUREUGGH! That's going to be most everyone's reaction to Hemsworth going H.A.M. on so many bad guys for his escape plan, Schwarzenegger could never tell him he hits like a vegetarian as he kicks some guy into tripping over a brick wall...with his forehead. Like Arnie this Aussie goes like a last action hero on the call of duty of his black op's for his modern warfare like a Jack Ryan, the late, great Tom Clancy would be proud of. This lone survivor with rocket launched black hawks coming down all around him like Josh Hartnett is familiar to action, aside from being an Avenger. From the machine gunning 'Red Dawn', to Michael Man's cyber attack 'Black Hat' (no one did the 'Heat' of gunfight like Mann, until some kid from Boston, Ben Affleck went back to 'The Town'), and of course the true war story of '12 Strong', Chris Hemsworth is no stranger to lights, camera, action. But when you knuckle up, ashes to dust in this hand-to-hand combat, no one boxes as clever as this gun-fu that will even have Keanu Reeves looking for the red pill for his next movie 'Matrix'. Dodge this. Because Hemsworth's Rake does with everything they throw at him here...including the garden implements. Arming up with enough on your set-piece plate to tide you over until the 'Love and Thunder' of one of your favourite, hottest superheroes takes on Batman, Christian Bale living long enough to see him become the villain in the next Thor movie. The only film being brought forward with everything else being pushed back like the chamber right now in corona quarantine.

Marvel at this one as 'Infinity War' and 'Endgame' directors the Russo Brothers executive producer credit co-sign and write this energetic war game, directorial debut from Marvel stunt coordinator Sam Hargrave (in a new 'The Matrix' to 'John Wick' trend of stuntmen making the best action movie directors. You should see the harms way, behind the scenes places Hargrave will go to get one perfect shot) starring Thor, Chris Hemsworth, going for the head this time with "BRING ME THANOS" anger. Just like they did the New York cop crime classic of Black Panther, Chadwick Boseman's '21 Bridges'. It all culminates in an epic one shot in a screen '1917' time for them even better than how Netflix's Marvel, street-level hero 'Dardevil' one-upped himself in that department every season, from the hallway to the prison break. And this outstanding one is so good it's ten minutes felt like it lasted forever (that's what HE said). I used to talk to my friend on the phone so much (well he did all the talking), that I could put the phone to one side, make a sandwich, come back, pick-up the phone and he'd still be chatting away. With this, I could have made a three course dinner, come back and they'd still be shooting, driving around when they should have turned left ("F###S Sake!" belongs in the Hemsworth quotable Hall of Fame as does, "PISS OFF YOU LITTLE S###S!" as he slaps) and rolling off rooftops before getting into street-level knife fights that will really run you down. The action in 'Extraction' is executed (with intended pun) perfectly. But even if you extracted the hero for hire Chris from this, you'd still have a great movie based on the Ciudad comic from the Russo's team. A breakout Rudhraksh Jaiswal is the star of the future as he comes of age and stage in his feature debut. Whilst the special force of henchman Randeep Hooda ('Once Upon A Time In Mumbai'), matching Hemsworth, punch for punch, round for round and clip for clip, steals every scene and frame he action acts in. Model actor Priyanshu Painyuli and 'Gangs Of Wasseypur' film series legend, Pankaj Tripathi give even more credence to this class cast. But it's 'Body Of Lies', 'Exodus: Gods and Kings' and perfect 'Paterson' star Golshifteh Farahani who really holds her stage in a bloodbath of action that still has its grace notes of endearing emotion. The spent shell casings of these bullets have butterfly wings. And what would Netflix be without a Hopper cameo from 'Stranger Things' star David Harbour himself? The should have been now, forthcoming, who knows when 'Black Widow', Russian superhero star whose also back in that red state for Season Four, bringing this movie its mid jolt of energy it needs like your morning does coffee and contemplation. Right now with cinemas locked down and Netflix extracting everything, there's so many movies to stream right now on this site. Even if they do belong on the biggest of screens, like the future of cinemas closed. From other special forces this time last year, going for broke on a 'Triple Frontier', to other Ben Affleck movies last month like 'The Last Thing He Wanted' with Anne Hathaway, that critics are treating name literally. Some you don't know whether to continue watching or Tinder, swipe left scroll past as you just continue to choose before you end up in the YouTube rabbit hole for your "and chill" date. Are you still there? Because 'Extraction' is worth extracting in this infinity quarantine before coronas endgame. TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Further Filming: '12 Strong', '21 Bridges', 'Triple Frontier'. 

CLASSIC REVIEW: LOST IN TRANSLATION (2003)

5/5

Alone In Tokyo.

101 Mins. Starring: Bill Murray, Scarlett Johansson, Anna Faris & Giovanni Ribisi. Director: Sofia Coppola. 

Neon dreams ready to rise like the sun in this land. 21 years old (it all seems like yesterday. Not a decade and change. It always does). 2006. November's eve, sitting in a Chinese restaurant with my folks, breaking prawn crackers a night before I'm about to head out to Toronto, Canada for a gap year and a future I hoped to write like for Basketball games (turns out I'd be home for Christmas in less than two months and I'm still penning that hoop dream...such is life), Dad asks me at the start of this adventure where else would I like to see in the world. My answers as quick as it's simple...Tokyo. Some of your favourite movies are classic ('Dog Day Afternoon'), some are epic and entertaining and remind you of your childhood favourites like 'Terminator 2' (childhood? How's that for a 'Judgement Day' parents?), or 'Jurassic Park' ('The Dark Knight'). Some are existential looks at love ('A Ghost Story') and life ('The Tree Of Life'). Others inspire as much as they influence. Put it this way, the don't just change...they make your life. Now sitting here writing this under laptop light outside the big, bright neon quarantined one of Tokyo (the port town of Yokohama to be exact), I guess with Sake instead of maple syrup I did make it to Japan after all...even if my American dream (by way of Canada) became the stuff of pipes. That's why Sofia Coppola's classic, big in Japan, Tokyo drift movie, 'Lost In Translation' like the 'South Or The Border, West Of The Sun', 'Norwegian Wood' of a Haruki Murakami novel, starring the one of a million kind, Bill Murray and a breakthrough Scarlett Johansson is my all-time favourite film. And not just because lost in Tokyo for a minute and once in a lifetime moment this film and this place served as a backdrop to my own love story with a girl who shared the same name as Scarlett's character as we sat and drank Suntory beer ("for relaxing times") on the top floor bar of the same Park Hyatt Hotel that served these two lonely lost in love characters first meeting over cigar and cigarettes. With jazz playing perfectly in the background, moving in unpredictable, wave like rhythms like the familiar blue pool below reflecting the night neons of the best view of the Shinjuku skyline you'll see in Tokyo more than a Tower or Skytree. Stealing a kiss in that same elevator scene before it all came down. As I write this in memory just outside the city, 'Lost In Translation' isn't just the language of a loved and lost story, it's also the whole reason I'm here in Japan. Living the dream and living my life. This film taught me about Tokyo. Made me want to come to Tokyo. And now teaching in Japan I've made my dream happen, found in translation.

17 years old. Before the Avengers. Before skydiving through the same digital neon skyline of the anime adaptation of 'Ghost In The Shell'. Before her umbrella in translation reunion with Hawkeye's Ronin in the 'Endgame' to all that ashes to dust, 'Infinity War' as 'Black Widow'...who will eventually have her own solo movie (and already would have by now if it wasn't thanks to COVID-19 in 2020) once the quarantine lifts. A reunion which made for the Johansson that can play anyone's best year with an Academy Award double for a history following Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress Oscar nominations for Netflix's' 'Marriage Story' and a endearingly humorous and heartbreaking scene steal in Taika Waititi's 'Jojo Rabbit' (those shoes). But before all that and a formidable filmography to boot, this study of Scarlett was subtly and tastefully lying across a Park Hyatt bed for the iconic imagery of the outstanding, opening credits, like a perfect portrait by painter John Kacere. All before Bill Murray jet-lag, fever dream woke up in the back of one of those black, white, orange or green Tokyo taxis as iconic as a New York yellow cab (that has also awoken another dream of mine to write a Japanese remake of Michael Man's 'Collateral' starring Tom Cruise, Jamie Foxx and the Hulk or Mark Ruffalo (another favourite film that changed my life seeing it the night before I left for the 6 in '06). 'Tanpo' in translation anyone?). And rubbed his eyes to pinch himself like he was dreaming when he saw those atmospheric, eclectic, electric neons of Shinjuku that were the inspiring illuminating reasons I wanted to see this city. And trust me...it's exactly like that moment. All scored to the classic soundtrack like the equally atmospheric 'Girls' of Death In Vegas. Squarepusher's 'Tommib', 'Fantino' by Sebastian Tellier, some Simon and Garfunkel and Atlanta Rhythm Section, the Air, 'Alone In Kyoto' Shinkansen Scarlett scene and The Jesus and Mary Chain, 'Just Like Honey' concrete skyline outro, just like Awkwafina's homaging 'Farewell' straight outta China last year. And who could forget Rick James or some "sucking on my titties", strip club music to 'F### The Pain Away' like 'Midnight At The Oasis'. Take your pick for the next time you hit the karaoke bar. But apart from some pink wig Pretending, 'Brass In (Our) Pocket', there's nothing more for us than Bill Murray channeling Bryan Ferry for Roxy Music's 'More Than This'.

"I could feel at the time. There was no way of knowing", Murray's Bill muses over his. There's a terrific book of too good to be true, but true as such stories about Bill Murray ("no one will ever believe you") by Gavin Edwards called, 'The Tao Of Bill Murray' that also shares stories of his movies in cinephile analysis and nostalgia. The way Edwards goes into detail about how Murray uses this punch drunk performance to communicate a love for Scarlett's Charlotte he just can't say is worth more than these words. Just like the stirring scene of compelling cinematic history before the head lean iconic image of trust you see above. Mic drop. Like carrying her home asleep and tucking her in bed like a gentleman, curled up and taking about life that inspired a song this writer wrote over a decade ago, seeing 'The Light' like Common from music to movies. Or the "keep writing" message I would critically heed. One of the things that makes 'Lost In Translation' work in this culture electric shock of an existential, insomniac lonely lullaby is the fact that 'The Virgin Suicides' and 'The Beguiled' director Sofia Coppola shares more than 'The Godfather' were she was introduced as an infant and then a major catalyst character arc by the act of Part III by the family with her directing father. Like Francis Ford, this film may be different but shows how Coppola's in classic cinema know how to make scenes breathe their own life. Or that the BAFTA winners here for Sofia's screenplay Oscar, 'Ghostbusters', 'Scrooged', 'Groundhog Day' and Wes Anderson again and again actor Bill Murray was on the second wind, reinventing generational act of his career. Whilst the 'Lucy' and 'Under The Skin' star Scarlett Johansson was just finding her feet...but oh see how she ran all the way to those shoes. From lipped stockings to the workout GIF I post everytime I try and join a gym. To the Rat Pack scotch (apple juice) and black toe (I almost had that here. Really! Don't stub your toe until it almost has you breaking for the nearest hospital during corona), this is a compelling classic, anchored by two actors who detached find connection in an alien city and their own marriage stories back home foreign to them. One in the crisis of mid-life. The other with the anxiety of youth. Both unbeknownst to the fire alarm ringing notion that they both risk wasting the moments they make before it's all too late. Like knowing that the Autumn of your years are coming like Winter. Or being disillusioned to the fact that you're only young once...and not for long. Just like the idea that real friendship, real love like this comes but once in a lifetime. Just as quick as a short trip. A 25 year marriage and a young woman whose just that age. For all the moments in this movie that serve as meaning and memory just wait until Scarlett's Charlotte asks Bill's Bob, "when you leaving"? And oh how he answers. Oh for one more run and dance around the scrambling crossing in Shibuya like The Jezabels, 'My Love Is My Disease'. That as Tokyo's Times Square right now in quarantine is as empty as our love and lost hand and hearts.

Scarlett broke up with great American singer/songwriter Pete Yorn in 2009 (for the 'Break Up' album. Not an actual separation. They're just friends) like 'I Am The Cosmos', before launching her own music career with an album of 'Big In Japan' Tom Waits covers with 'Anywhere I Lay My Head'. Two years back on the 15 year anniversary of 'Lost' (released in 2003 it feels so aesthetically beautiful as its time) Johansson found Yorn again as the 'Relator's' related for the 'Apart' EP and 'Bad Dreams' song as classic as take me to the 'Movies'. "Thanks for breaking up with me again Pete" she told Yorn in the linear note credits for this musical sequel that somehow playing this in a Tokyo hotel also felt like a spiritual sequel to 'Translation' or this love and life. Just like Coppola's ex husband's Spike Jonze's love app-tually movie 'Her' (also starring Scarlett...as a smartphone) was meant to be a reply to Sofia's 'Lost In Translation' (I guess a post 'Friends', pre-everything else, 'Sneaky Pete' great character actor run Giovanni Ribisi's camera character who I always vowed never to be like was him. And let's not get started on a post 'Scary Movie' pre-Pratt and 'Mom' Anna Faris "movie with Keanu" character. Nobody does it better), at least 'Joker' Oscar winner Joaquin Phoenix and Rooney Mara met on that movie. And as we leave you guessing with the last words that people have been left debating for years between Bill and Scarlett, whispered like the note Rooney writes for the wall in the truly haunting in albeit, all different ways, 'A Ghost Story'. That's the point. You're not supposed to know. Like Bill Murray said, "it's between lovers". There's a beauty in mystery. Protect that. As the real spiritual sequel to 'Lost In Translation' in another solitary hotel is the fairytale in New York loneliness of the 'A Very Murray Christmas' special. Reuniting Bill with all his George Clooney and Miley Cyrus friends. Directed by Sofia Coppola on Netflix (Scarlett's sssnake Kaa and Bill's Baloo themselves reuniting on Jon Favreau's live action Disney 'Jungle Book' remake). Streaming it last Christmas in a hotel room in Tokyo on the eve of flying home for the holidays before a New Year back in Japan like the 2020 Olympics I'll wait for like that sportswriting hoop dream (hey Rui!), I couldn't help marvel at how everything comes around as rain fell like snow outside the hotel window, wishing a Merry Christmas to all those I was going to join in presence under the tree. Like it says in the trailer, "sometimes you have to go halfway around the world...to come full circle". Thinking how as the rising sun fell in the Far East I had found myself no longer lost in Tokyo. But in a transformation that needed no translation. Now is that everything? I feel like I should say more. Here's for relaxing times. TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Further Filming: 'A Very Murray Christmas', 'Her', 'A Ghost Story'. 

REVIEW: THE FAREWELL

4/5

That Awkwafina Moment.

100 Mins. Starring: Awkwafina, Tzi Ma, Diana Lin, Jiang Yongbo, Lu Hong & Zhao Shuzhen. Director: Lulu Wang. 

Concluding our look back at the movies we missed last year during this quarantine with 'The Farewell', what better way to say goodbye? Although we are a long way from leaving our living rooms in social isolation right now...so how about another recommendation? Over the last couple of years in what seems like a day (how about the last few months that have seemed like a year?), indie film distributor A24 has also become the best. You only have to see 'The Lighthouse' this year, or 'Uncut Gems' to point towards two of the most Academy underrated award worthy movies and performances of the last calendar like this one. That finds itself like the aforementioned in the same light as the 'Under The Skin', 'Locke', 'A Most Violent Year', 'Ex Machina', 'Room', 'The Lobster', 'Moonlight', 'A Ghost Story', 'The Florida Project', 'The Killing Of A Sacred Deer', 'Ladybird', 'First Reformed', 'Hereditary', 'Midsommar', 'Mid90's' and 'The Last Black Man In San Francisco' best. And you should see the rest. The only thing that rivals it...especially right now...is...well...you know...Netflix. The streaming service with no chill despite what your date thinks. And right now when the tiger style of 'Tigertail' starring Asian/American legend Tzi Ma is the real Tiger King Carole Baskin, based on the life of Alan Yang's father, 'The Farwell' also co-starring Tzi Ma is a picture portrait of family history that rapper slash actor Awkwafina just had to make...before it's too late.

Tragedy despite the comedy probably isn't the most appropriate subject matter for a movie right now...even in catharsis. Especially with so many families losing their relatives to this cruel and relentless disease without the opportunity or even the right to say goodbye. Although in these times of corona were xenophobia and racism is more rampant than it usually already is thanks to some Trumped up, hateful bullshit wrongly calling this thing the "Chinese virus", it's time to take a look at a family that's just like you and me. Even if they do do things differently. Everybody loves and everybody hurts. And everybody deserves what their worth. Don't sell individuals short on what you think is a collective truth. Especially when it is based on a notion that is false. Sure the virus started in China, but now we are all contributors and spreaders of the disease the more we don't stay safe and at home, putting our lives and more importantly the lives of others, including our loved ones at risk. We are all accountable. We all need to take responsibility. But I digress. In this 'Crazy, Rich Asians' revolution, this movie is so good and yet underrated it belongs in the Oscars like the Best Picture and international one and worldwide juggernaut of dynamic director and script flipping writer Bong Joon-ho's perfect 'Parasite' classic. 'The Farewell' whose Chinese titles translate to "Don't Tell Her" concerns a Chinese/American family who on receiving the terminal diagnosis of Awkwafina's grandmother character Nai Nai decide to keep her in the dark for her own good and not tell her, such is the traditional Chinese way and cultural beliefs. Instead they stage a faux wedding to get everyone together to say goodbye (you thought there were tears at your father of the bride speech. How about Jiang Yongbo scene and movie stealing with his heartfelt performance?) and pay their respects, "subtly", without letting on. Sound contrived? Well it's actually somewhat beautiful and best of a bad situation, well intentioned in its moving meaning. Gathering everyone together with genuine concern for a fake ceremony is something like 'Tigertail's' Yang that is close to 'Posthumous' director Lulu Wang's heart and life experiences for her magnificent moment in movie history. Nothing is as nearer and dearer to the hearts of moviegoers than what is closest to ours. And airing our her radio story 'What You Don't Know' Lulu shows us something we can all relate to, even if 'This American Life' experience isn't one we all directly share...we can still be distant cousin to that feeling. The Sundance and Golden Globe nominated movie is like 'Tigertail' (belonging in a big-three right now with that 'Parasite') not only one of the best pictures in any culture, but also the most important...for any family. And with another subtly restrained and soulfully nuanced performance from 'Rush Hour' and 'Arrival' actor Tzi Ma, it's the tail end of revolutionary, cornerstone pieces of Asian and American cinema that are as deeply personal as they are groundbreaking. Don't you know?

Awkwafina is absolutely amazing at this 'Farwell'. Now we can answer Smokey Robinson about "what's so good about goodbye" with this miracle. The 'Crazy, Rich Asians' and 'Oceans 8' stand-up hilarious game changer-last seen in scene on 'The Next Level' of 'Jumani' channeling Danny Glover and DeVito-is at her soulful and deepest best. The Stony Brook 'Yellow Ranger' can go from black comedy ("I know") to playing for the strings in a heartbeat. Showing the deepest and darkest recesses of all we repress and all that's repressed here. It's the fine line between comedy and tragedy that show us the most stand up people have probably been knocked down by the life they know the most times. When Awkwafina's Billi talks about not being able to say goodbye to her grandfather before he passed what heartbreakingly speaks to us more right now, fittingly and fatefully? It touchingly goes without saying like the 'Lost In Translation' like Roxy Music 'More Than This' karaoke, speaks a thousand words communication, Girl/Dad collaboration of The Fugees' (subtle symbolism from the Refugee Camp like the Indian headdress costume in 'Parasite') 'Killing Me Softly' ("one time"), with Tzi Ma, like father, like daughter. Just like the 'Titanic' camerawork of a traditional wedding drinking game you really will raise a glass to. And like the Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson, Sofia Coppola classic there is a taxi goodbye that takes us away between the Asian 80's futuristic skyline by concrete day that really grounds us to this hand over the mouth, starring through my rearview finale which might not go as you predictably expect. Wave at this class cast in family, from Diana Lin's real mother, to the revelation that is Lu Hong...actually playing herself perfectly. But it's 'The Story Of Ming Lan' star Zhao Shuzhen as the grandmother in question-who even bittersweetly reminds me of my great one (I miss you forever) like her sister reminds me of her daughter (for real for years as a kid I stupidly thought my grandmother and great one were sisters they were so alike) who moves us to laughter, tears, heart and soul. It's an inspired portrayal in an iconic movie that will influence generations to come like the timeless traditions of culture and history. Endearingly practicing tai chi with all her unwavering spirit. HA! Based on an actual lie, 'The Farwell' is the truth. And right now when all we want to do is say hello, movies like this trapped between tradition and four walls are what will tide us over and keep us comforted. Despite the fact this all doesn't seem real. Until then I can't wait to shake your hands and embrace you all again...but not yet. So long and farwell for now. TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Further Filming: 'Tigertail', 'Crazy, Rich Asians', 'Parasite'. 

REVIEW: TIGERTAIL

5/5

Tiger King.

91 Mins. Starring: Tzi Ma, Christine Ko, Lee Hong-chi, Yo-Hsing Fang, Yang Kuei-mei, James Saito & Joan Chen. Director: Alan Yang. 

Joe Exotic will be walking with his tail between his legs after this tiger style from Netflix with more stripes than Carole Baskin is about to have strikes against her "f######" middle name, basking behind bars. Streaming for memes, quarantine may be leaving you crawling the walls with more windows on your netbook open than the Summer you wish you could just go outside for (not yet...please), but this is one project you should really get your claws into before you shut the lid on your laptop like an angry piano player. Besides ain't half of you obsessed with 'Tiger King' meant to be vegans anyway? You should go and watch Bong Joon-ho's 'Okja' on Netflix if you're following 'Parasite' trends so much. Aziz Ansari's 'Master Or None' modern love in times of Tinder co-creator Alan Yang gives us his masterpiece in the classic cinematography of the amazing neon, red room aesthetics that hark back to hallmark Asian cinema with his story of one man's American dream across the water. As vintage as the vinyl, dog-eared like library books and recorded at crates packed and moved into the trunk of cabs, as our two lovers in the wind dance to the old tunes they sing along to so lovely and lovingly like Otis Redding's '(Sitting On) The Dock Of The Bay'. This is 'Tigertail' not 'Tiger King' on Netflix. Running through the flame grills and off-white aprons of a kitchen like a runaway American dream. With the promise to take you there someday as Emmy Award, 'Little America' producer Yang continues the 'Crazy, Rich Asian' Netflix revolution which comedian Ali Wong's 'Always Be My Maybe' highlighted with a classic, meta self-aware Keanu Reeves cameo as himself this time last year. And this search for home like 'Lion' with 'Moonlight' moving, compelling cinematography is as gold as Oscar. Beautiful. Generational. Touching. Think of it as the dust jacket scratchy love song on wax to Yang's father as he wrote it to the letter as such. One in reply to all the Asian's, Asian American's and the immigrants who need a voice right now in these troubling times with racism sadly on the rise again like a vile virus we wish we could vaccine for good. This tiger's tale is one that pulls at family history and legacy from traditional Taiwan to modern day New York City.

Girl/Dad. Fathers daughter relationships can just be as struggled as the ones between father and son like Cat Stevens sang. And of course...they are nonetheless just as important and influential, like a mothers love. None as taught and fraught in Hollywood dramas today as the one between parental protagonist and his only daughter here on stream. You may recognize Chinese/American actor Tzi Ma today from Amazon's Philip K. Dick's dystopian novel adaptation, 'The Man In The High Castle'. Or more "you may know me from such shows" than The Simpsons' Troy McClure. How about even bringing the emotional heft and heart to Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker's first 'Rush Hour' as his ambassador characters daughter was held hostage? But look at the restrained tears he has for his child here. Hiding behind mild manners and a measured way of being that society or history dictates you should be. Even if it's the furthest from what you want to be in expression and emotion. Now however the groundbreaking 'The Farewell' and 'Arrival' actor who always leaves an indelible mark in anything and everything he does and is about to do so even more in Disney's quarantined and push backed, live action 'Mulan' remake is going to be known for this like the award he should receive. His raw and restrained performance is as perfect as it is perplexing and as lonely and lamenting as the tea he prepares for himself like the table he sits at each night for one. He's a paunched, far cry from the skinny, white tee and slack, bill-dodging, freeweheelin' slacker of youth who wanted to be as American as Dylan for his ballad of a thin man, blowin' in the wind. Played with punctuation by 52nd Golden Horse Award winning actor for 'Thanatos, Drunk' (no relation to you know who. You know the guy who likes to click his fingers?), Lee Hong-chi (you can see why he's won breakout awards). Madly entwined in dance steps and heart skips with the endearing, Yo Hsing-Fang as they kiss. Just like they were as rice field introducing, 'Slumdog Millionaire' like kids.

Children are the real heart of this matter however, as Ma and his daughter sit together at the table with teacups. Just as lonely as when he was home alone like Macaulay. But a lot more awkward. We can all relate to this as we can the love between  relatives that never breaks like the strongest bond of glue, or family tree sap. It really is all relative...and relatable. And welcome to the big screen career of CBS actress Christine Ko...even if you are watching this on a laptop or smartphone cast to your television in 'The Great Indoors'. Ko is an incredible and inspired talent and Christine here is soul searing in this soul searching story that needs her heart...no matter how bruised it is. One scene were Ko and Ma walk home seperately but in some ways together at night is bittersweet and blisteringly beautiful. The moving mothering of 'Eat Drink Man Woman' icon Yang Kuei-mei factory working is a real as the one you hold dear too. As is Netflix's 'Altered Carbon' and 'Always Be My Maybe' Dad dancing scene stealer James Saito. But it's 'The Last Emperor' and Netflix's 'Marco Polo' star Joan Chen who just may break your heart in the last few scenes and what it all means. This movie like Culkin will find you perfectly sitting at home alone one night. Even if we are left searching for 'Star Trek' Sulu star John Cho's cutting room floor scenes. Some xenophobic, ignorant Westerners may dismiss this movie right now based on the same ludicrous notions of blame as we all need to take stock, stay home and account for our actions. But don't they know that every individual, like every family, is exactly that? Individual and family. Different...but just like us. All of us. The greatest Netflix movie since 'Roma' (with all due respect to the Oscar streams of 'The Irishman', 'The Two Popes' and 'Marriage Story') with the same directorial inspirations of family. 'Tigertail' over 'Tiger King'. It's more than the wildest meme to share with your friends during the is social distancing. It's the big picture you've always dreamed of during this quarantine. Utterly moving and compelling. This caring and not the sharing is what will get you through right now and last long after we can put our phones away (we can you know) and finally go back outside and actually see the beauty of this world and each other hand-in-hand. A remarkable, meditative, heartbreaking and healing, lovely little movie. Just as such is life. And during a corona quarantined time were socially we are kept at a distance of more than six feet away from each other, the tail end of this tiger tail gives us the hope that love and life will come back to us once again. No matter how long it takes. TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Further Filming: 'The Farewell', 'Lion', 'Roma'. 

T.V. REVIEW: KILLING EVE Season 3

4/5

All About Eve.

8 Episodes. Starring: Sandra Oh, Jodie Comer, Fiona Shaw, Harriet Walter, Owen McDonnell & Kim Bodnia. Creator: Phoebe Waller-Bridge & Suzanne Heathcote.

You'll float too. Send in the clown. Season 3 of 'Killing Eve' is here and Villanelle is blowing circus balloons like Pennywise until it all POPS! Bullets popped through 'Greys Anatomy' star Sandra Oh's character on the eve of this season in Roman ruins and now as soon as you see the classic typography titles of MOSCOW, 1979 (or BLACKFRIARS. Or BORED) you know it's on like back then, as the 'V' for vendetta drips. It's a nice day for a white wedding. So much so our muse could have had four like Hugh Grant, "they are so fun". But you best believe there will be a funeral to begin this speech as you tap your glasses with the same forks you stick in all that's about to be done. But what about when the car window becomes frosted like the screen shot of the fellow best of British, 'Black Mirror' on reflection? We may wish for a Season 3 of the best comedy 'Fleabag' like we wish we could be watching 'No Time To Die' right now Bond...James Bond (this writer has made it this far without hearing what I'm sure is Billie Eilish's iconic theme. Saving it for when we finally get back to theatres and I can hear it for the first time over those iconic 007 title sequences). But how about a bus stop end of the line easter egg that is worth the wait like when then two come at once. And at least in this time of Corona we have the holy trinity of a third 'Eve' for Phoebe Waller-Bridge's scripted big-three brought forward early like 'The Last Dance' of Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls between ESPN and Netflix. Based on Luke Jennings noir novella like a 007 spy serial in a Big Smoke of trading postcards like passports, even the MI6 can't stop this. As Liverpool's own Jodie Comer is back as the accented and multi-faceted Villanelle. As Sandra Oh (who was born on the same day as this writer. JUST SAYIN') tries to get further in this mind dialled M for murder's greys anatomy. Surgical with this.

Stoy crying. You saw Oh back as Eve chopping onions in the first photos and trailers as a sous chef. Spoiler alert this is not for the third season of 'Killing' that's truly the charm. As oddly as endearingly infectious as Kim Bodnia's laugh. HA! Some critics said this started like a dead donkey out the gates. I say like Stella it was just getting its groove back. And what a groove as Villanelle goes back to her home like Mother Russia and dances around the dinner table to Elton John with 'Crocodile Rock' shoes (just for the record. This is me everytime our national treasure, 'Rocketman' comes on. Its not just the kid in those Dame Edna glasses doing his best impression like Taron Egerton). It's about to burn the house down like the roof was on fire. And for all Villanelle wants to get out the game this season like a lockdown like lockout sports syndicate, you can't hate on this compelling character. Especially when she goes all Tiger Woods with the iron...or is that Michelle Wie? Good enough to play with the boys. Better in fact as she swings you out the bunker. What a shot. And what a camera capture on the train home, cycling through all the emotions like a runaway train does landscapes. All before descending into a tunnel of darkness. Train acting, headphones on and immersed hasn't been this lonely and honed since Scarlett Johansson was 'Lost In Translation' on a Shinkansen alone to Kyoto. Bullet time in this murder matrix indeed. And how about Eve? It's not all about Villanelle. As in losing everything she used to love and everything short of her mind and where her heart is left now, Sandra Oh immerses us with the sinking and submerging pressure guages Eve is under like a crushing boot sole to the ribcage. Coming up for air only for someone to put a garden fork in it all like it really is done. What a hoe! And this wrong tool ain't being misogynistic. But blood in the eye, this dance between Polastri and Okana-from the local bus, to the next train, to the literal waltz-is like no other. Losing nothing in their chemistry steps. But is this their last one?

Cake on the nose. That's where you recognise 'Harry Potter' and 'Fleabag' star Fiona Shaw from. 'Three Men and a Little Lady'. Thinking the 'Magnum P.I.' of Tom Selleck was trying to seduce her before coming out the closet. But I must ask you a question. Have you ever seen someone in such command. From saving the day in 'Little Lady', to being the wonder woman here, Fiona is a sure thing. She might just be the best thing about this series at times...because this is the role of her life and it's all in her own making. A simmering cauldron of repressed rage about to boil over either before this eight wonder ends or her stay at home daughter asks what's for dinner or who's coming. Guess...the only one more scene stealing than Shaw is Scandinavian drama veteran Kim Bodnia and that classic cackle. Even with Owen McDonnell's Niko returning for a stunning spell, or 'Downton Abbey' DBE, Harriet Walter's aging assassin in full manipulating mode. Catfishing the hell out of these plot twists like this writer was at the star of the year by a nice lady from Phoenix, Arizona who sounded a little too French (not that there's anything wrong with that) to me when I finally got her on the phone (LOL). 'The Bridge' star and Monte-Carlo Television Award winner bridges the gap and really brings a powerhouse performance to the penultimate episode, becoming an iconic character in the process. And with more plot points that twist and turn in this black comedy thriller we can't wait until this Tower Bridge closing draws and goes forth for one more shot in the Big Smoke and the rest of the world once the borders reopen like a license to kill, permission to shoot. At that hollow point, then whether it's the opera of opening your balcony windows to the Italian Riviera in reaction, or the dramatics staged on the Royal Opera one in finale curtain, this thing will sing. And on the eve of the next season, you know Oh and Comer are about to make a killing. TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Further Filming: 'Fleabag', 'Greys Anatomy', 'The Night Manager'.

T.V. REVIEW: THE ILIZA SHLESINGER SKETCH SHOW-Season 1

3.5/5

Shlesinger Confidential. 

6 Episodes. Starring: Iliza Shlesinger. Creator: Iliza Shlesinger. 

Sink showing 'Boogie Nights' and 'The Departed' star Mark Wahlberg whose boss against a bathroom mirror he later on fists like a bar fight, Iliza Shlesinger takes a role that would otherwise be cloaked in crude and crass clichés (like the one I just made about fisting...my bad) and has so much fun with it. In 'Spenser Confidential', the fifth film between 'Lone Survivor', 'Deepwater Horizon' and 'Patriots Day' big-three, acting and directing dynamic duo, double team, Mark Wahlberg and Peter Berg, following 'Mile-22' she steals the show from the perfect partnership, Winston Duke (the man that did the same from Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan and the warrior women three of Lupita Nyong'o, Danai Gurira and Letitia Wright in Marvel's 'Black Panther') and good ole, 'Argo' "f### yourself", Al Arkin. The moment she rescued him from his hostages and asked if they made him "engage in any a## play", just finished me off. That's when I knew like John Mulaney or Melissa Mccarthy, Ali Wong or Sebastian Maniscalo that right behind the likes of Dave Chappelle and Jerry Seinfeld (we need her 'Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee') she's one of the funniest people alive, watching this Netflix movie. Turns out she owns the whole streaming service that that swipe left scroll of finding the perfect partner when you're Netflix and chilling on your own during this corona locked down quarantine right now.

Claw away at a 'Tiger King' all you like, like everyone else right now before 'Tigertail' shows you what has the real Netflix stripes this weekend tomorrow, but we all know Netflix is a joke. And an inspired Iliza is having the last laugh. You can stand-up with everyone from the 'Tambourine' of Chris Rock to 'Our Man In Chicago', 'Curb Your Enthusiasm's' very own Jeff Garlin. But it seems like Shlesinger and the star of the show, her puppy Blanche (now how's that for an animal?) and the iconic head-to-head I.D. shot have more Netflix specials than Marvel have cancelled 'Defender' series. Or Kevin Hart. It's OK, 'Daredevil' can't read this. It all hash-tag began like ordering "Flah Bread" because you're entitled with the hot as hell/cold as ice debut special 'Freezing Hot', before 'Confirmed Kills' really finished everyone off. Than this 'Elder Millennial' dropped the mic on a military boat for love and country, before finally becoming 'Unveiled' last year following her wedding as Blanche dog walked the stage aisle in a veil. And now just weeks after going 'Spenser Confidential' with Wahlberg, Berg and company, this classic comedian like going 'Inside Amy Schumer' (you wish) holds her own stage with 'The Iliza Shlesinger Sketch Show'. Six sweet bits of comedy in this half a dozen series that reminds us of the Aziz Ansari and his dudes beginnings of 'Human Giant' ("LET'S GO!") I used to have video playing on my iPod Classic (remember that?) as she pushes the envelope like 'Chappelle Show' or the Comedy Central satirical social commentary of the faux news politics as unusual of 'The Daily Show'...with some correspondents here too for the record.

Stop press! This show like Shlesinger is funny as f###. We just wish we had more helpings of this bakers dozen like 'The Chef Show' aid of 'Chef' and 'Iron Man' star and director Jon Favreau. But how's this for a portion? So much so we don't want to hear the last 'Play Pretend' theme by the MGMT and Empire Of The Sun like Smallpools theme like those who don't want to hear this earworm ever again. All to set off an animated title sequence for a show that selects its sketches like you were scrolling through a streaming service like Netflix. Well give your fingers a rest like finding a real someone to love outside of Tinder, because you don't have to swipe left only to spend your whole night not finding anything until its all too late to find something and you find yourself down the YouTube rabbit hole once again. How about a female version of 'Jackass'? Don't try this, but do watch this at home as Iliza Shlesinger welcomed us to a Jackass that makes its presenters post selfies with no filter and prank knock on their exes door and run. A brave and bold master move in taking shots at not just men (like the alcoholic anonymous underground meeting of women who admit they actually aren't ashamed of themselves, presided over by the mansplainers of toxicity, straight outta System of the Down like the "rolling suicide" of this Chop Suey), but the way some women treat each other and the sickening standards they have to keep just to be treated with some R.E.S.P.E.C...T to be Franklin. Other skits take on shows like The View to hilarious "me, me, me" effect too, once they even get down to talking following their opening introductions pointing at the crowd and soaking it all in like they were ball players or Martha Stewart rock stars. And there's the stuff we just can't spoil like lesbian chefs called Dylan and topknots...which ruin everything. From a game night more hilarious than Jason Bateman and Rachel McAdams, to a meta jab at the season by seasons that pass in this 'Winter Is Coming' age before a T.V. show gets good...or not if you look at certain series' final season after all that binging. And just wait until you meet Nicole Kidman's stunt double bench pressing everything like the ripped fat dudes that are protein powder somewhere on the scale of "Matt Damon between movies and Russell Crowe at his peak". Or find out the mystery to why a couple went on a boat trip together like Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway's 'Serenity'...and both came back?! I'm sorry...what?! Check the 'Mom Alerts' and take the advice for this new series stream audition. 'A Star Is Born' like her pup and the crufts dog show from this dog mom here like Lady Bow Wow and Bradley Roofer. Tie a home show, bespoke bow around and "look at that". Joining her 'Forever 31' and 'Truth and Iliza' shows this smart satire is a funny take of scathing of feminism that takes on anyone who doesn't take this subject matter itself seriously. All especially if this real, "woke" life comes across as parody like down the street from a SNL Levis commercial. Comic relief and this stand up talent is a sweet escape like Gwen Stefani, no doubt. Something that we COVID scared need right now in a world of weary worry. This show came at exactly the right time when the couch is our best friend like potato chips and whatever on the tube is our solitude. And company doesn't get much better than this comedy. Dear Iliza is taking us out a hole. The 'Last Comic Standing'. Hash-tag, 'The G.O.A.T.' BAAAA! TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Further Filming: 'Inside Amy Schumer', 'Chappelle Show', 'Human Giant'. 

REVIEW: BLACK & BLUE

4/5

Black Rose. 

108 Mins. Starring: Naomie Harris, Tyrese Gibson, Mike Colter, Reid Scott & Frank Grillo. Director: Deon Taylor. 

New York City, the year 2000. The Big Apple. Samuel L. Jackson's 'Shaft' before the Netflix sequel of the same name last year famously declared his private dick that's a "sex machine to all the chicks" was, "too black for the uniform, too blue for the brothers". New Orleans, Crescent City, 2020. The Big Easy. Naomie Harris' compelling cop character in 'Black and Blue' is facing the same both sides of the gun fate. Continuing our latest trend of quarantine checking out the movies we missed whilst lost in translation. Doing it big in Japan with the social isolating. Let's take a look at October's very own 'Black and Blue' starring 'No Time To Die's' Naomie Harris and '2 Fast, 2 Furious' star Tyrese Gibson. Now both their James Bond and 'Fast and Furious' sequels are on license to chill, pit stop indefinite hiatus thanks to the corona virus. But Moneypenny is right on the dollars and the superstar singer hits all the high notes with this cop/crime classic that has red and blue neon shine shades and shadows of the Los Angeles Times, Oscar winning 'Training Day', as Harris gets treated like Ethan Hawke's rookie in a French Quarter full of Denzel Washington Alonzo's. Okay...OKAY. It's like that? Looks like (New Orleans) Pelican(s) Bay is going to be the next place some of these corrupt cops heading for the shoe program are going to pick-up a Basketball like Lonzo to Zion. King Kong may not have s### on Denzel's 'Best Actor', but on 24 hour lockdown you could do worse than get 'Black and Blue' as we write about all the lost movies you should see whilst in your own living room prisons right now until we do the same. Don't just claw at Facebook feeds for the latest Netflix 'Tiger King' meme you feel you have to view. Spoiler alert, Carol Baskin killed her husband...and we haven't even streamed the show.

Mardi Gras is a long way from this city in this cop land movie, as this film drenched in rain in the middle of the swap still shows us the effects of Hurricane Katrina in a story of corruption that is all too real and all too today. Even the prize catalyst of this movie is more than a modern metaphor, but a literal symbol of the injustice that's going on today on screen and behind the camera. As footage found on the internet from West Point, Illinois shows two black men being walked out of a supermarket by a cop for wearing face masks? Face masks? For trying to keep themselves...and everyone else safe whilst just trying to buy groceries. And what's worse? You can see as clear as the middle of the day this was recorded that the cop had his hand on his service weapon, all whilst these individuals were complying fully. No justice, no peace. But for every bad cop unworthy of the badge, there's a hundred good cops showing us courtesy, professionalism and respect. They suffer from corruption too...only they have nowhere to run as well, as highlighted in the tensest scene were Harris is running from door-to-door knocking for help so she doesn't rat-a-tat-tat on heavens one. But no one will open up. Why? Because they don't want that heat. Or? Simply f### you! As one of the good ones, Winnie Mandela in 'Long Walk To Freedom', Naomie Harris OBE going by the book and for her partner covers for him one shift. Smelling a rat however she follows the one she's riding shotgun with as a temp and sees him and some more boys in blue, dripped in red shoot some unarmed perps who are talking with these cops more casually than an interrogation, although they feel the squeeze...execution style. Seeing whose just witnessed them giving last rights, they put two in Harris' beat cops vest. But they completely miss her bodycam. And the manhunt with all the forces hardware is on for the one piece of software that will no longer blur this thin blue line of duty.

Woop-woop. The sound of the police drowns out the swamp as it's flooded with blue closing in like Chadwick Boseman's fellow fall cop classic throwback, '21 Bridges'. And Harris and Gibson have to make it back to the precinct that feels longer than Bruce Willis and Mos Def's '16 Blocks' with every corner as crooked as the cracked concrete streets of a city still striving and surviving the struggle. Bent like the out of shape police department here, where finding an honest cop is like finding a donut in the Dunkin' box brought back from lunch. Harris going above the call of duty at her pay grade level here delivers her best yet. As the 'Pirates Of The Caribbean' actress leading with full screen-time unlike the spare change she had under the 'Moonlight' to make her supporting Oscar Mark is incredible and inspired as she influences and evokes every emotion in a physical performance that strains your nerve, will and trust. There are many crime films to cop that walk the beat, but none that run through tension and exhilaration quite like this. As Harris' bodycam moves and movie direction make you think of David Ayer's found footage 'End Of Watch' classic with Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Pena and what it would be like if all this was filmed that way. Whilst one tile hitting bathtub moment under the gun and circling the drain were your blood and evidence would just wash away calls back to one of our modern indie G.O.A.T's, Ethan Hawke's best begging and acting on screen on his 'Training Day' before he went all 'Brooklyn's Finest' like B.I.G. and Jay-Z crooked. And as this is Naomie's greatest she must escape the hood and the police that patrol it for her in a tension more terrifying than the outstanding one shot in 'True Detective' were Matthew McConaughey had to escape the hood and a gang of redneck, racist bikers at the same time, baseball bags and guns akimbo. That's not alright, alright, alright like the laid back Texan hosting a bingo party online for the states elderly during this COVID quarantine. All 8, all 8, what a Saint. But just before you think when it comes to this heat, Naomie has it worse than Al Pacino's 'Serpico', wondering which way to look or which way is up, Harris has help. And it's in the form of Tyrese Gibson. The 'Baby Boy' actor and singer has been the star of the show in franchises like the 'Fast and Furious' and 'Transformers' for decades now. But NOW from the humble supermarket beginnings of a man with as many broken pieces as dented tins on the shelves to the local, working class hero he becomes like his own journey from Watts, getting out of his own way Tyrese gives us more than his best performance since 'Four Brothers' (that needs a sequel like 'Five Brothers'). This is the 'Waist Deep', 'Death Race' and 'Ride Along' cameo too stars greatest role yet...as he also waits for his Marvel 'Morbius' with Jared Leto to be rewoke from the closed cinema dead. Let alone his most nuanced, honest and heartfelt for a police picture that doesn't paint by the book, but shows more humanity in a real world and force in dire and desperate need of that. And Harris' rookie is going to need all the help she can get even if she is strong enough to lead the way on her own like Blake Lively's 'Rhythm Section'. Especially with 'Warrior' and 'End Of Watch' star Frank Grillo leading the crook squad on her tail. Driving around in his gold American muscle as Harris hops the fence from backyard to backyard. Grillo on the grill was so good in Marvel's 'The Winter Soldier' taking on Captain America and the Falcon that will become him on Disney+, before becoming the classic Crossbones villain after his own origin story in 'Civil War', before then teaming up with Anthony Mackie again for Netflix's 'Point Blank'. But the reliable vet is at his best here too. Like the Hero of Harlem, Marvel and Netflix's 'Luke Cage' on the wrong side here, as Mike Colter's mob man in furs looks like he's going for the Maybach Music of Rick Ross. Rugh! And who knows whose side 'Venom' star Reid Scott is on, or what he's up to in Devon Taylor's best picture after his 'Chain Letter' and 'Traffik' salad days, before he works with Jamie Foxx on his 'All Star Weekend' next season. But as of this one, nothing is beating this black and blue right now. In Naomie Harris' Oscar winning 'Moonlight' movie they said in that light, "black boys look blue". But under the blue and white when it comes to the right that justice should know no colour, this is a notion that will never fade to black. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Further Filming: '21 Bridges', '16 Blocks', 'Training Day'. 

REVIEW: THE RHYTHM SECTION

3.5/5

Slave To The Rhythm. 

109 Mins. Starring: Blake Lively, Jude Law & Raza Jaffrey & Sterling K. Brown. Director: Reed Morano. 

This is the rhythm of the night. Don't panic. Be calm. Be still. You've got to get your 'Rhythm Section' under control like Law says, soothing our shooter and getting her thoughts in order. Hey Jude. Think of your heart as the drums. Your breathing is the bass. BANG! You awake? In this couch quarantined time of self confinement, no one goes it quite as alone on screen for your movie night in than Blake Lively. 'The Shallows' of this 'Gossip Girl', deep actor once went against Jaws all on her own (aside from some Steven Segull company on the rocks) tooth and nail (or more like a flare gun) like her husband Ryan Reynolds 'Buried' alive in a coffin with sand as the only solidarity for an hour and a half. Signs of more than a power couple...but great, individual actors from the meta 'Deadpool' to the subtle storytelling whodunit 'Knives Out' like vintage of Paul Feig's 'A Simple Favor', cocking a service weapon under the table of a roadside diner with 'Crazy, Rich Asians' Bond auditioned Henry Golding like today's special was really going to hit. Now 'Bomshell' beware you don't have to go all 'Atomic Blonde' like Charlize Theron, or the Harley Quinn of 'Birds Of Prey' anti-hero Margot Robbie to be a vigilante going for her revenge against the real villains. Especially with this actress accented in more ways than one. Any red head dead, femme fatale wig fits this blonde to black bob serving iconic looks in a thriller from the producers of Bond that spies hard with a license like 007. Lively alive-like we hope movies soon will be back on the big screen in this shaken and stirred time with 'No Time To Die' the first to be pushed back-is killing it in this Fleming like novel adaptation of Mark Burnell's brilliant bestselling book...literally. All in synch with perfect rhythm like dun, dun, done.

Orchestrating a hit against those who took out her family, Blake makes sure this revenge of violence is not an unfinished symphony as she goes on the massive attack like mezzanine. Think of your heart as the drums. Your breathing is the bass. BOOM! 'The Rhythm Section' may have been one of the biggest box office bombs ever, but that doesn't matter. You can still feel the beat. Besides you may have heard of something called corona that's been keeping people away from the seat tilting cinemas even more lately than digital downloads which now make your home the on demand place to movie be. But from epic explosions to gritty gravitas, this movie depressed in a dank January is noir mesmerizing and personally compelling thanks to Lively's human touch, as she continues to go from a Hollywood household name to the upper echelon of actors. This is real. You can literally see the blood form on her face as she walks away from all the destruction she's given her sweat and tears to in an utterly physical role were she gives her all. And how about that street to car chase outstanding one shot, that even rivals Charlize Theron's 'Atomic Blonde' as Blake's 'Rhythm Section' shows this more realistic revenge assassin can turn an overused technique today into what it really is below the surface stunts...a directing art form? Like this movie that is much more than the picture perfect postcard retreats, that backdrop almost make you forget this movie jumps from London, to Scotland, New York, Madrid, Tangier and a magnifique Marseilles like the real killer we want to get rid of right now. Distributor Paramount pictures say despite the receipts they're proud of their picture...and they should be. In a day and night in time right now we're movies to some living alone could serve as their only company, we need to move away from a time were we just hate on everything and anything we haven't seen because of a bad weekend at the box office or a couple of critics who have their noses too high up to actually see this thing. This is meant to be entertainment and most movies do that, despite people's pretention or looking through the lens of the even bigger form of that in dollars and not much sense. And unlike other good movies this one actually has some creation and auteur direction to its cinematic touch. No need for it to be sectioned.

Zimmer scores shimmer across the soundstage as Hans lends his hand to this screenplays soundtrack, learning the time ticking trademarks of his 'Interstellar' and 'Dunkirk' trade, all whilst bringing the legacy making 'Dark Knight' strings of this legends work that frames this picture with a perfect sensory portrait across the five. The revenge in this movie is so palpably raw you can almost taste and smell the gun metal and powder in this keg of fuse explosive nerve and anger. But get it under control like Blake remember. Her heart is the drums. Her breathing the bass. Lively starts this movie raw and ravaged in the Big Smoke like her compelling character in Ben Affleck's 'The Town' that she brought more physical lines to than there were on the screenplay. But then when she takes it to the Scottish Highlands she really climbs a mountain of physical and performance endurance. Becoming a sheer savage with the taught training of a 'Black Sea' deep Jude Law who has hints of maddening menace behind his mentor character like his one for Brie Larson's 'Captain Marvel'. The 'Road To Perdition' and 'Cold Mountain' icon of 'The Young' and 'New', two 'Pope's' series giving the heart drums, breathing bass, 'Rhythm Section' conducting speech is at his best, as brutal and unforgiving as the chilling wind and cold meals up in these moors as he gives Blake an ultimatium of a challenge, swim home or die. Literally making her fight over the dinner table for her chance to exact revenge, let alone sing for her supper. All until she rips the cotton out of his kevlar at range with a hollow point from distance. Imagine if Rocky had this raging bull in his corner. The CIA as they always do come into play here too. And it's 'This Is Us' in the bespectacled beautiful form of Sterling K. Brown. The 'Waves' actor scene steals like he did in the opening of his character catalyst to the 'Black Panther' revolution or making his breakthrough case in the 'American Crime Story' of 'The People vs O.J. Simpson'. But it's 'Code Black' and 'Eastern Promises' actor Raza Jaffrey's investigational journalist that really gets the scoop with heart and humanity in his opening page appearance. As calculated as Ben Affleck's 'Accountant'. As slow burning compelling as the gun oil of George Clooney's 'The American' in the scope of retirement, assembling a rifle for one last job in the Italian countryside, this ultraviolence of the mind and the hand to hand matters evoke more than lights, camera and action, but the bruised soul of our agony perplexed protagonist here. Beat to beat like a Jezabel, Blake Lively is "your girl" here like the epic, 'When Did You Sleep Last Night' trailer theme lead by the Sleigh Bells like guiding at night. 'The Handmaid's Tale' and 'Kill Your Darlings' director Reed Morano with signature style gives us a real revenge movie that's brutally worth more than the 'Salt' of an Angelina Jolie one in this 'Anna' age for 'Adaline' and chapter and verse of this 'John Wick' time for this woman on fire. Like an underrated 'Colombiana' with Zoe Saldana putting the payphone down to Johnny Cash's 'Hurt' years before the 'Logan' run of another neo Western. Instead it lies next to sleeper hits in the genre like Jodie Foster's 'The Brave One' (with a scene stealing Terence Howard playing the Jude Law part), Vin Diesel's best yet 'A Man Apart' (whose influence could be credited to the 'New Model, Original Parts' fourth part comeback of the previously pit stopped 'Fast and Furious' franchise) and a South Korean 'Villainess', catching a bus in the line of fire at the end of this fuse too (who could one shot kick in first person camera both John Wick and the 'Atomic Blonde' movies asses). This belongs in the section of the best revenge thrillers served despite the cold. Let the rhythm hit 'em. TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Further Filming: 'The Shallows', 'The Brave One', 'Atomic Blonde'. 

REVIEW: 21 BRIDGES

4/5

The Bridge Is Over. 

100 Mins. Starring: Chadwick Boseman, Sienna Miller, Stephan James, Taylor Kitsch, Alexander Siddig, Keith David & J.K. Simmons. Director: Brian Kirk. 

Bridging the gap, here's a 21 gun salute to '21 Bridges' starring 'Black Panther' star Chadwick Boseman. Backed up and produced by the 'Avenger' Russo Brothers who helped bring him into this movie mainstream 'Civil War', as Iron Man put those metal rock 'em, sock 'em dukes up with the kid from Brookyn who can do this all day. James Brown, Jackie Robinson, Thurgood Marshall. Before T'Challa, the Marvel of Boseman was the biopic king of black pioneer power, and now he sits on the vibranium throne of Wakanda...forever. But it was movies like '42', 'Get On Up' and 'Marshall' were the cat Chadwick truly cut his claws into acting. Three biopics not even a half decade into his mainstream breakthrough. Have mercy Jamie Foxx and Michael B. Jordan. This guys just the next Denzel. Or Leo, right there with Poe, Oscar Isaac as Hollywood's next great hope. And now like Netflix's 'Message From The King' before he and the streaming service sync with Spike Lee for 'Da 5 Bloods', he carries over his filmography with the force of '21 Bridges' with New York on lockdown like the Big Apple really is now months later along with the earth's core and this coronavirus, pandemic of planet panic. But now this should serve as a symbol of solidarity (New York, I love you) as we lift the Police 'Do Not Cross' tape it's time down the thin blue line that we get wrapped up with more movies we missed whilst in the DVD like in cinemas release date of Japan (that is even late to the lockdown). Whilst we stay quarantined and bundled up at home on the couch during this social distancing. Because what else can we do whilst stuck between these four walls saying hello like Willie Nelson and what we hope to soon be an open door (but not yet), when we just know we'll end up with our head in a fishbowl if we try that headstand challenge from the 'Spider-Man: Far From (Stay At) Home' stars Tom Holland and Jake Gyllenhaal? Because films shouldn't just last the two weeks they are out these days like 'The Holiday'. And from Bond to 'Top Gun' and 'Black Widow' to 'Mulan', with more movies in the popcorn hopper like Harbour quarantined until further notice, we don't need Netflix to at home on demand see what we've got left. Now we should appreciate all we took for granted when we could go out and just do stuff in a time were we need to chill on just scrolling past everything like social media and not actually settling on anything to watch. All if it helps you choose tonight as we continue our catch up trend here under the bridge.

90's nostalgic, this movie with more bridges than Leon feels like it runs back to the golden era, away with the blue blood, meat and potatoes, back to the action basics of movies like 'The Negotiatior', 'US Marshalls' and of course, 'The Fugitive'. DAM! Even Tommy Lee Jones would care about this one that has a train finale with 'Collateral' damage inspiration too that opens the door to an action movie that offers you everything you want like Subway. The meat. The veggies. The words 'Avenger' and 'Civil War' are dropped in the first five minutes of this Russo produced picture (like the forthcoming '12 Strong' like Chris Hemsworth military 'Extraction' on the triple frontier of Netflix) like by the red 'Homecoming' book that makes the 'Winter Soldier' ready to comply. But this shares more with the spy thriller namesake debut from the superhero siblings, that minus a metal arm and frisbee would just be your classic, run of the mill action figure. Or those Netflix, New York, street-level heroes for hire like 'Luke Cage' and the rest of the 'Defenders' that should have never been stream strewn to the sewers like a Ninja Turtle or a bad slice of pizza. As with courtesy, professionalism and respect in a Manhattan surrounded and bathed in blue like the Hudson, Chadwick goes all good cop amongst officers more crooked than the trees that spring rotten, bad apples. In a Stallone like 'Cop Land', getting between the meat locker, frozen steaks like 'Rocky' on the other side of the Meadowlands of Jersey that sees the five boroughs reduced to one in Manhattan, as tense as the anticipation for a neon New Year in Times Square before the ball drops like Dick Clark tradition the moment the classic NYPD undercover car crosses the Brookyn Bridge. Something that 'Run's All Night' like a veteran Liam Neeson movie across the same concrete battered and corrupt '16 Blocks' Bruce Willis had to escort rapper Mos Def down across town. Bruised 'Black and Blue' like the fellow cop shot thriller released at the same time with 'Moonlight's' Naomie Harris and singer Tyrese that's truly fast and furious like a 'Bloodshot' Diesel. But for all the people, Boseman has played. The Godfather of soul with real heart. Swinging for the Academy fences as the first African American baseball player in the Major League, who now has his number retired throughout the association like the reverse of 24, Kobe Bryant should be in the NBA. The courts first African American justice. And of course the King of Black Panther for a comic legend honouring the revolutionary party. But in this film, this king for a message for anyone that thinks dirty cop lives matter, he's never quite had his own self assured swagger quite like this. The compelling and engrossing Boseman has always embodies each character in all his epics like a chameleon. But now for the first time you're going to a picture lead by him because you don't want to see a superhero or superstar. But because like the signs of a legendary making leading man at his legacy, you want to see Chadwick.

100 minute, romantic comedy runtime gives way to a relentless pace which feels like a chapter out the Grand Central hit on Wick or the anxiety attack of an 'Uncut Gem'...and it's still a good time. Cop killers key a drug bust beginning that holds even more weight as these crooks and the NYPD engage in some 'Heat' in this town that Michael Mann of even 'The Way Back' of Ben Affleck would be proud of for a cruiser glass smash from 'Game Of Thrones', 'Boardwalk Empire' and 'Luther' director of dynamite fuse Brian Kirk that breaks new ground in the control stage, first act of a movie that is anything like a slow drive across the bridge to Manhattan like the start of 'The Sopranos' down this wire. Got yourself a gun? These set-pieces are going to need one in an action flick that takes on everything from those who use the trend 'Blue Lives Matter' without realizing what they're saying in the grand scheme of things and those who also fail to see the real people behind those badges and bulletproof vests. And this movie as New York as the reflecting puddles on the sidewalk, shimmering below the neon and fire escape ladders of the speakeasies has a roster, roll call cast that reads like a rap sheet of the best of the best. Partnering up, there's the always amazing 'Layer Cake' star Sienna Miller over the last half decade has been on the 'Foxcatcher', 'American Sniper' and 'Live By Night' form of her life (and from Broadway to the West End, anytime we talk about her we HAVE to mention how magnificent she is in the stage adaptation of Tennessee Williams great American play, 'Cat On A Hot Tin Roof') and is on her world weary Pacino like police state here. And if the moonlight of what should have been another Oscar winning movie, 'If Beale Street Could Talk' it would tell you that a stellar Stephan James and the 'Friday Night Lights' of 'American Assassin' and T.V. 'Waco' and 'True Detective' star Taylor Kitsch on the wrong side of the law, show so much more depth of character underneath the bandanas of their criminal activity and amazing action. It's the Gambit of the 'X-Men', 'Battleship' and 'Lone Survivor' actor and the 'Race' Jesse Owens groundbreaking one this (would have been) Olympic year that make these characters more than clichés. Just like a cameo from 'Gotham' and 'Peaky Blinders' Alexander Siddig in robe that could be tied back to both and an underused but undeniable 'Platoon' and 'The Thing' legend of 'Crash' and 'E.R.' Keith David. And this drum roll is symbol crash punctuated by 'Whiplash' Oscar winner and 'Patriots Day' Boston blue blood cop (not to mention like Gary Oldman or Jeffrey Wright, the perfect Commissioner Gordon in 'Justice League'. Who is also on his Spider-Man homecoming if you spoiler alert know what we mean), J.K. Simmons. This vet cop can't be beat. And neither can this movie from the police captain Kirk, which one Sunday night you'll watch with your old man on the sofa, on some syndicate on whatever channel you hop to and think to yourself, we had it pretty good when we had to stay at home. Cop this right now. 21 and over. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Further Filming: 'Black & Blue', '16 Blocks', 'Captain America: Civil War'.