I have recovered from my hernia repair surgery and will shortly this morning be returning to my day job. Frankly I am happy to do so. Medical leaves are never fun and getting back to work feels like real progress.

As we are nearing the end of the year, I thought I would do a quick look back at all the movies I watched in theaters during 2019. For the entire year I held a membership in AMC Theater’s subscription service A-List which allows for a flat monthly fee up to three movies every week. Using this and counting repeated screenings I went to AMC theaters 42 times during the year and I know of at least three films, Jojo Rabbit, The Good Liar, and Official Secrets, that I watched at other chains, bring my rough count to 45 theatrical screenings in 12 months. This does not count the Sunday trip to a local micro-theater the Digital Gym, which seats 48 people and my friends at SD Film Geeks, have been hosting a year-long once per month festival of Pre-Code movies.

I watched some amazing films this year including Jojo Rabbit, Knives Out, Hotel Mumbai, and others, there were simply fun movies such as Jumanji: The Next Level and Hobbs & Shaw, and a few disappointments including Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.

All in all, this was a very good year for film, and I have high expectations for 2020.

Knives Out, written and directed by Rian Johnson, is a return the classic who-done-its of the past. A wealthy patriarch dies after a celebration of his 85th birthday and his entire extended family and staff are loaded motive.  Led by a stellar cast Knives Out has been finding fans among audiences and critics alike.

Well written and with marvelous direct and cinematography the film is treat and another feather in the cap for Johnson who has emerged as an artist with a singular vision. Mysteries are particularly hard to review because they are by their nature built upon twists and turns that the creators hope are to the audiences both surprising and inevitable. Making liberal use of flashbacks and unreliable narrators Johnson keeps the pace quick but plays fair with the audience supply enough information that the films ultimate resolution is something that is reasonable and understandable. Certainly much more than have a dozen characters occupying a single railway carriage.

This film is thoroughly enjoyable and fun and one that I will simply have to see again in the theater.

I am not a gearhead and have never been particularly entranced by racing movies. Despite that from the first previews I was intrigued and fascinated by the trailers for Ford v Ferrari. The fact that the film was directed by James Mangold who also directed the terrific Logan only heightened my interest and listening the Cinema Junkie’s interview with Mangold only sealed the deal.

Given the subject matter instead of avoiding my local AMC Theater’s AMC Dolby auditorium with the vibration capable recliner I selected it to deliberately enhance the experience.

So how did all this sort out?

Pretty damn well.

Ford v Ferrari is not principally about the racing it is about the people. It is a story concerned with the timeless themes of loyalty, friendship, and the passion that drives people. Centered on the relationship between Carroll Shelby (Matt Damon) former racecar driver and La Mans champion and mercurial Ken Miles an uncompromising dedicated British driver with terrible interpersonal skill as they attempt to take an American team from the Ford motor corporation to the winner’s circle at the 24 hours race at Le Mans. Along the way they battle each other, corporate politics, backstabbing, and the cruel equations of physics while challenged by the world’s foremost automotive engineers at Ferrari.

Each man, Shelby and Miles, battles personal demons that threaten to destroy their victory, and each grows out of the conflict, expanding their character and deepening their friendship. Along the way a host of iconic historic characters, Lee Iacocca and Henry Ford II among them both hinder and assist them in the nearly impossible quest. As I stated at the top of this piece I am not a gear head and never had any interest in the mechanical and yet the script and Mangold’s fine direction made it so not only I could follow the technical details and challenges the team face but I understood them well enough that dramatic impact came through when the film left no time for exposition.

For this screening the Dolby at AMC experience worked perfectly. Last year I watched A Quiet Place in the same auditorium and the vibration of the seats disrupted by immersion into that horror film, jolting me back into my reality out of the story’s but here it buried me into the experience, bring me just that much closer to the character’s environment.

Overall this was a great film to watch in the theater and one that even if you have little or no interest in racing you should see.

Bill Condon, writer/director of Gods and Monsters reunites with Sir Ian McKellen to tell the tale of an aging ruthless con man, Roy, out to swindle a naïve wealth woman, Betty played by Dame Helen Mirren, of her life savings. The movie also star Jim Carter as Vincent Roy’s confidence game partner and Russel Tovey as the woman’s suspicious and protect grandson.

The previews give away one of the movie’s principal twists, that this mark, Betty is not the easy target she appears to be, and a game of cat and mouse develops between the two leads. However, this is not the structure of the film and that bit on the trailers, while effective in selling the movie, uncut what little dramatic tension the film displays.

And that is the movie’s glaring weakness a lack of dramatic tension driving the narrative forward. Rotten Tomatoes critic’s score is currently sitting at 64 percent and honestly that feels about right. Populated with extremely talents actors and competently directed by Condon The Good Liar is watchable but due to the lack of tension it ultimately feels a little empty.

Dramatic tension happens when you have a character with an objective, obstacles that hinder the character in achieving their objective, and a cost of failure. The Good Liar is told solely from the point of view of Ian McKellen’s Roy and instead of a game of hunter and prey switching roles back and forth as Roy claims victories and suffers defeats we instead follow him through the plot as he lays out his trap for Betty and his small fortune. This is problematic story telling for two reasons, first off because Roy suffers no reversal and no serious opposition to his con there is little dramatic tension to keep the audience engaged. Second and just as important, Roy is not a charming rogue, a loveable con man he is a ruthless swindler sociopathic is his lack of concern for the pain and suffer he causes. Most people’s sympathies are not going to be for Roy and that can be lethal for your point of view character. Even the character Walter Neff from the classic noir Double Indemnity expressed remorse and guilt over his crimes as he commits them but being enslaved by his passion Walter is unable to turn away from his doomed path. Roy is not passionate, he is cold, calculating and devoid of feeling for anyone but himself. This combined with the lack of obstacles critically undermines what should have been a great neo-noir.

Late last year I subscribed to AMC Theater’s loyalty program and subscription services ‘A-List’ and here is a back of the envelope calculation for how that has paid off for me.

The monthly cost of the program is $23.95 and for that that are a number of benefits but the central one is the ability to see up to three movies a week. All feature films excluding special screenings such as those hosted by Fathom Events are eligible.

In the first ten months of 2019 I have attended 36 feature films using my AMC A-List benefits, 14 were matinee screenings and 22 would have been full price admissions. IN my area the early showing run about $8 and the evening showing about $15. That means in ticket prices I have watched about $500 dollars worth of feature films in the theater but my subscription ran about $250.

The short answer is that for me the A-list is a certified deal.

Taika Waititi’s films span a fascinating range of subjects from Hunt for the Wilderpeople through What We do in the Shadows and the most bonzo entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe Thor: Ragnarök and now Taika gives us the touching coming of age story Jojo Rabbit about a young boy who is a fanatical devote to Adolf Hitler.

Set in the waning stages of the European theater of World War II the films central character is 10-year-old Johannes ‘Jojo’ Betzler (Roman Griffin Davis.) Slight of build and lacking in public confidence Jojo dreams of becoming a respected member of the Hitler Youth and eventually a tireless soldier for the Reich.  As with many children Jojo has an imaginary friend that helps him psychologically deal with life, in this case his imagine pal is Adolf Hitler (Taika Waititi.) Jojo’s mother Rosie (Scarlett Johansson) is less than thrilled with her son’s political fanaticism but remains a devoted, supportive, and loving single parent to Jojo. After an accident at a Hitler Youth weekend of training Jojo is a taken under the wing of Captain Klenzendorf (Sam Rockwell) where Jojo assists the war effort. When Jojo discovers Elsa (Thomasin McKenzie) a Jewish teenager hiding from the Nazis he is forced to confront the truth about himself, his family, and his idol.

The film displays in abundance Waititi’s characteristic zeal and broad humor while never forgetting that this is a story about a young boy obsessed with an evil philosophy. Taika plays the imagines Hitler campy and over-the-top fitting with something a child might imagine and yet here and there flashes of the anger and hatred color the performance never letting the audience become too comfortable with the murderous madman behind the idolization. The movie’s final act nearly drops entirely the farcical tone of the script and turns dark serious and unsettling as Jojo crisis collides with his naïve view of the world in the end propelling the boy to become a young man.

Expertly performed, the film rests on the young shoulders of Roman Griffin David, as the entirety of the film’s world is filtered through his viewpoint. The rest of the cast is amazing managing to walk that line between realistic portrayals with touching pathos and broad irreverent comedy. Some characters exist solely on one side of that divide or the other and never disrupt the overall tone and dram of the piece. Taika’s use of German language versions of popular music such as I Want to Hold Your Hand and Heroes ties our time to the historical using an unreality to reminds of reality.

Overall this is another amazing film from a talent artist we need to continue watching, do not wait for streaming, go see Jojo Rabbit.