Blade Runner 2049 (2017)

Director: Denis Villeneuve. Cast: Ryan Gosling, Harrison Ford, Dave Bautista, Robin Wright, Ana de Armas, Jared Leto, Hiam Abbass, Barkhad Abdi, Edward James Olmos, Sean Young. 163 min. Rated R. USA/UK/Canada. Sci-fi/Thriller.

Okay, too much to say, so just bullet points:

1. Materializes the original's mood by replicating its moments, but with renewed identity;
2. Impossibly provides new depth to and expands upon the original's plot points;
3. Villeneuve goes back to his Incendies 1+1=1 roots;
4. Reminds of Her: "GCAT .... or 1 and 0?", "Love ... or mathematical precision?";
5. Snow replaces rain for 'tears in rain';
6. Heart-melting Edward James Olmos cameo and Sean Young flashback;
7. Thirteen-time nominee Roger Deakins will finally win his Oscar;
8. Hans Zimmer fascinates again, while respecting Vangelis' masterpiece;
9. Worth every second of its 160 minutes.
10. To be marked as one of the greatest sci-fis of the 21st century.

Mo says:

MoMagic!

Icarus (2017)

Director: Bryan Fogel. 121 min. Documentary.

I made the mistake (again) of watching this documentary's trailer before the film itself. It starts out with a filmmaker's Supersize Me-like research on himself, about whether he can pass a doping test while doping (in professional cycling). But then ... the film explodes into something else. That 'something else' is the surprise the trailer spoiled. Still, the fact that the film documents the issue parallel to real world events is so overwhelming, it makes you crave for more (how prevalent is this in other countries?). After this, watching sports will never be the same.

Mo says:

Berlin Syndrome (2017)

Director: Cate Shortland. Cast: Teresa Palmer, Max Riemelt. 116 min. Rated R. Australia. Horror/Mystery.

The horror/thriller genre thrives from protagonists who've never watched a single horror/thriller. They go all alone to foreign countries, unable to speak the language, meet total strangers, and follow them into far-off abandoned apartments where nobody can hear them scream while they're getting chopped up. Curiously, the soundtrack, eerie at opportune times, understands our heroine's dangerous situation better than she does, and while rising star Teresa Palmer is terrific as someone suffering from Stockholm syndrome (likely the movie's namesake) ... either I'm too paranoid of such real-life risks, or the insane naivete of such characters totally undermines the premise.

Mo says:

Battle of the Sexes (2017)

Director(s): Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris. Cast: Emma Stone, Steve Carell, Andrea Riseborough, Sarah Silverman, Bill Pullman, Alan Cumming, Elisabeth Shue, Fred Armisen. 121 min. Rated PG-13. UK/USA. Sports/Biography.

The true story of the iconic 1973 tennis 'battle' between feminist Billie Jean King and chauvinist Bobby Riggs, and even if you didn't know the historical outcome, you can guess; otherwise, this film wouldn't have been made. Alas, it's about the journey, not the destination. While too much time is reserved for King's homosexual conflicts, the movie plays it fair, and by introducing King's husband, doesn't portray every single male on the planet as egocentric pigs - and the 'woman against the system' message is truly inspiring. Another movie that rings loud in Trump's America. Expecting an Oscar nomination for Silverman.

Mo says:

Wind River (2017)

Director: Taylor Sheridan. Cast: Jeremy Renner, Elizabeth Olsen, Graham Greene. 107 min. Rated R. UK/Canada/USA. Crime/Mystery.

Okay, while gathering my thoughts on this one, I cheated: Sheridan, the writer/director, also wrote Hell or High Water. So of course, the structure is exactly the same: huge build-up through deep character development, meticulous plot narration, and beautiful off-limits landscapes (here a snow-covered Wyoming Indian reservation) ... to eventually fizzle out during a loud and somewhat nonsensical payoff. But Renner, a hunter who's hunting down this murderer to compensate his shortcomings on a previous murder, has one moment-of-truth scene that shook me, just by him diverting his eyes. Believe it or not, that made the entire movie worth watching.

PS: Thanks for the recommendation, Negin!

Mo says:

A Ghost Story (2017)

Director: David Lowery. Cast: Casey Affleck, Rooney Mara. 92 min. Rated R. Drama/Fantasy.

The best advice I can offer here is: go see this fresh. Don't watch any trailers, don't read any reviews. Rather than a ghost story, this is merely a movie with a ghost in it: exploring the concept of a person close to you dying, their ghost wandering around you (including watching you for 6 minutes somberly eating a pie), and what it means for a ghost being confined to neither time nor space. This is an unbelievably mesmerizing piece of art, that had me thinking for days. So does that make this deserving of a MoMagic? Probably.

Mo says:

The Beguiled (2017)

Director: Sofia Coppola. Cast: Nicole Kidman, Colin Farrell, Kirsten Dunst, Elle Fanning. 93 min. Rated R. Drama.

Wounded Union Civil War soldier shows up at a girls' school in Virginia, and awakens the girls' womanhood - both their inner beauties and inner viciousness. In her 2017 Cannes award-winning remake of the 1971 Don Seigel film, Sofia Coppola not only explores her favorite theme of human loneliness (that usually ends in tragedy), but also tells men not to take women for granted, or else ... you might find yourself castrated of your masculinity. Beautiful cinematography using natural lighting and a Kidman/Farrell/Dunst/Fanning powerhouse ensemble make this one of Coppola's most memorable movies, on par with The Virgin Suicides.

Mo says:

47 Meters Down (2017)

Director: Johannes Roberts. Cast: Mandy Moore, Claire Holt, Matthew Modine. 89 min. Rated PG-13. UK/USA/Dominican Republic. Adventure/Horror.

Another shark movie, feeding off the success of last year's The Shallows, again with every desperately good moment placed on a scale to compare with Jaws - because the entire flimsy story is a Jaws concept in itself: person lowered into shark-infested waters, in a cage; in this case, 47 meters below. The plot makes no sense, most of the dialogue is mind-numbing laughable, and while the film doesn't even make the 90-minute mark, a portion of the climax excitement is the heroine's dream! I admit I was on the edge of my seat, so that saves this from a NoMo.

Mo says:

The Long Goodbye (1973)

Director: Robert Altman. Cast: Elliott Gould, Nina van Pallandt, Sterling Hayden, Henry Gibson. 112 min. Rated R. Crime/Comedy.

It's film noir, and its main character is Philip Marlowe, so you know even before the story starts rolling, that the female employing our hero's services is criminally complicit in her own qualms, and he's being led into a trap to cover the lady. But that's not the point. The point is how Altman beautifully stylizes what Raymond Chandler, Howard Hawkes and Humphrey Bogart canonized in the 40s into the 70s, ... and the range of emotions Elliot Gould delivers through mere facial expressions. If film noir ever happened in the wacky 70s, this is exactly how it would be.

Trivia: Watch for Arnold as one of the gangster's henchmen!

Mo says:

Mother! (2017)

Director: Darren Aronofsky. Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, Javier Bardem, Ed Harris, Michelle Pfeiffer, Domhnall Gleeson. 121 min. Rated R. Horror/Mystery.

Everyone will have their own take, but in my opinion, this is yet another movie based in pregnancy-induced psychosis. I liked Aronofsky's Requiem for a Dream, but taking that hallucinatory first-person narrative and multiplying it ten-fold, just means you're desperately trying to throw the viewer into a 2-hour tailspin - a weird, unwelcome goal in my book. By the movie's last scene there may be an embedded philosophical theme of recurring realities and timelines, but by then I was already so glad the movie was over. This may end up becoming my worst movie experience of the year, but for now ...

Mo says:

It (2017)

Director: Andy Muschietti. Cast: Bill Skarsgård, Jaeden Lieberher, Sophia Lillis, Finn Wolfhard, 135 min. Rated R. USA/Canada. Horror/Drama.

A Stephen King adaptation that does right what most horror movies do wrong. Instead of insulting us with mind-numbingly dumb jump-scares, it takes its time, grounds the terrain by helping us understand each of these kids and their friendship in a familiar, old-fashioned way (exactly how Stephen King novels are), ... and then delivers its very effective jump-scares. Only error: thinking that hundreds of teeth make a monster look scary. But still, the perfect illustration of childhood fear, the perfect atmosphere of a haunted house, and Skarsgård's perfect portrayal of Pennywise, make this one of the best King adaptations ever.

Mo says:

Annabelle: Creation (2017)

Director: David F. Sandberg. Cast: Anthony LaPaglia, Samara Lee, Miranda Otto. 109 min. Rated R. Horror.

We're seeing a strange new trend in the horror genre: prequels that are vastly better than their originals; first with Ouija and Ouija: Origin of Evil, and now with Annabelle - a movie that was so horrendous, you'd swear to stay away from that doll ... not because it was scary. The prequel has its fair share of horror cliches (characters making the dumbest choices, instead of just leaving the haunted house), but also creates a decent number of effective scares, nevertheless solely through lighting and sound. And the ending makes a sudden reference to the Charles Manson murders. Eerily intriguing.

PS: The post-credits scene is a shout-out to The Conjuring movies. That means a Marvel-style multi-movie cross-connecting horror franchise is in the works.

Mo says: